The NASA Goddard Metal Solar SystemNatalie Estereicher SolanoAward: Top 100
School: millennium high school Over the last summer, I visited the NASA Goddard site for an aerospace engineering camp with students I had never met before from a variety of different states, countries, and continents at Johns Hopkins University. When we were exploring the outside regions of Goddard, I saw the metal solar system they had-- which was attached to pivoting metal poles. Thinking of a quick photo opportunity with my friends, I quickly snapped a picture of us together. Now that my physics class has finished, I retrospectively realize that the uniqueness of the photo that drew me to it was due to the reflection of light. The "fish eye camera" illusion achieved in my photo is achieved due to the light reflection warping around the reflective metal ball. Essentially, as the light hits the further curves on the surface of the sphere facing me, the light gets reflected in a variety of outwards directions from the sphere-- that is, in contrast to a flat surface mirror. Due to the reflection of the light in more outward directions as the light is further from the center of the sphere, the reflected image is more and more distorted as you look closer to the edges of the sphere. This creates a rather ironic effect of making the image look like a tiny globe, where myself and my friends appear to be giants on our own planet. 
|
|