Water Drop Magnifier

Water Drop Magnifier

Its so simple to make your own mini magnifying glass. Heres how.

Suitable for kids aged 4+

You Need:
  • Small square of fairly-rigid transparent plastic (You can cut-up a clear acetate sheet, or a transparency available from art and craft stores and/or office supply stores. A piece of plastic from a shirt box or the like would also work)
  • Half a straw
  • Stapler
  • Drop of water
  • Eye dropper bottle or pipette (optional)
What to do:
  1. Staple the straw to the edge of the piece of clear plastic. The straw acts as the magnifiers handle.
  2. Add a drop of water to the centre of the acetate. It is much easier to apply the drop using an eyedropper or eyedropper bottle, otherwise try the end of a straw or something similar to apply the drop.
  3. Try not to disturb the drop of water so it stays in a nice rounded shape. The water acts as the magnifiers lens.
  4. Now try your magnifier out. Hold it close to some small print and watch how the print under the drop of water is magnified. Vary the distance of the drop from the print and see what difference this makes.

Why is it so?

The water acts as a lens, just like the lens in a commercial magnifying glass. The convex lens bends light on its return journey from the image underneath the lens to your eye, making the image appear larger or magnified.