Emily Calandrelli Instagram – Day 4 of Science Mischief!
Courtesy of Dr Ralph Science Elf 🤓
Follow along for 12 days of Science Mischief 🎄
📝HOW TO🧪
Color your elf on paper (I used cardstock)
Place it inside a ziplock bag (I used snack size but any size will do)
Use a permanent marker to outline your tree on top of the bag.
Fill a large vase with water.
Dip your ziplock bag into the vase and look at it from above (you can look at it from the front as well, but you’ll need to turn your ziplock bag to see the same effect)
🎄THE SCIENCE🤓
We see color by LIGHT reflecting off of it and bouncing into our eye.
LIGHT can change SPEED depending on what it is moving through (like water, air, plastic, etc)
When light CHANGES speed it also changes DIRECTION (it “bends”)
The light from the elf needs to move through PLASTIC (the ziplock bag) WATER AIR to get to our eyes
That PLASTIC is the special sauce for this experiment because it slows down light so much that it BENDS away from your eye. That is why the elf seems to DISSAPPEAR!!
#elfontheshelfideas #elfontheshelf | Posted on 14/Dec/2025 00:05:13
