Refraction in the Real World

January 6, 2006

Check out the Top 10 Science Experiments. I think it's amazing how such (now) rudimentary ideas were resolved in the past with such simple experiments. Nowadays if you want to discover something amazing, you need $2 million and a machine that fills the lower floor of a building. I think Milliken's Oil Drop Experiment is probably the one that surprised me most when I first learned about it years ago. It's amazing that someone was able to determine such a miniscule constant by such a seemingly crude (get it? haha!) experiment. I also love Foucault's Pendulum, which is a ton of fun to watch at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in DC.