The dyslexia machine
I encountered a very clever device in a museum that was said to bestow users with a sense of what it was like to be dyslexic. You had to try to write your name in front of a mirror so that the reflection of the letters looked right. It is extremely frustrating.
Try it with a regular mirror. Hold a pad of paper right up to a mirror and write so that the letters read normally in the mirror. The periscope does allow you to read normally because the second mirror un-does what the first mirror did.
Did You Know?
Did you know that when you look in a mirror, you don't see yourself as others see you? The left and the right of you are reversed. So why doesn't the mirror reverse up and down? I don't know myself.
Other sites with periscopes and mirrors
- Super Sylvia and her family (of Make Magazine) have terrific periscope instructions, too. They have done the best at incorporating math concepts into the construction.
- Science Snacks with Mirror: Collections of mirror experiments and projects by Exploratorium
- Concave Mirror Trick by Bruce Yearny
- Disgustoscope