Tangled? Let's Tango!
Lucy Wu
Award: Top 100
School: taipei american school
Teacher: sarah peters
Category: Contrived
Photo #19485
Tangled? Let's Tango!
When you first look at the photo, you might think it's neurons in the brain, or electricity that is reaching out from the darkness. But in reality, it is a photo of moving fiber optic strands, an everyday technology that has been transformed into a glowing blueprint of physics in motion.
The threads of light travel through the paths of the fibers. As the fibers shift, their illuminated tips show this trail of light across the darkness. This is total internal reflection in action, a physics phenomenon where light remains trapped in a medium, such as plastic or glass, because it hits the boundary at an angle greater than the critical angle. This principle allows the light to travel with minimal loss, guiding it from the base to the tips, resulting in this amazing web of glowing lines.
The color being an electric blue isn't just a coincidence, colors with shorter wavelengths move around and scatter easier, making the blue light look even brighter in the dark. Fiber optics are commonly used in internet cables and medical equipment like endoscopes, but the combination of wave optics and motion is what makes it truly special.
In this photo, physics stops being just an abstract idea we learn about in the classroom.
It becomes electric.
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