Bending Beams

Overview

Bending Beams is a project to see how different liquids affect light refraction. The hypothesis is that denser liquids will refract more than liquids that are less dense. A homemade light refraction set up is used to point a laser beam into a prism filled with different liquids (water, Gatorade, Capri Sun, Apple Juice and Coffee). The light beam angle for each liquid is used to calculate the angle of change by subtracting the liquid angle from the empty prism angle (baseline). The density of each liquid is also calculated using the formula mass over volume. Data is the average of three trials. Data from this experiment shows that Apple Juice had the most sugar, highest mass, was most dense and refracted the most. Water had no sugar, lowest mass, was least dense and refracted the least. Liquids with higher densities refract more because of two factors. The first factor, sugar, affects density because sugar creates a molecule wall making the liquid heavier and more dense. When a beam of light hits the compact molecule wall, it slows down the beam and causes the light to bend. The second factor, total dissolved solids or TDS, are organic or inorganic particles in a liquid. TDS affects light refraction because when a beam of light comes in contact with the particles, the light refracts. This experiment proves that there is a direct correlation between sugar and TDS with the mass of the liquid which affects density which then affects refraction.

Competition history

• CSEF 2026 Physics & Astronomy (Junior Division) · Entry J-17-05

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