Project Ganymede. How to measure the speed of light by timing the occultation of Jupiter's moon.
SCIENCE PROBE! Nov 1992 (v.2#4) pg. 109
How to construct a homemade refractometer that requires a helium-neon laser as a light source. Also, a simple apparatus that demonstrates the principle of a refractometer using a protractor, an aquarium, and a beam of light. A refractometer measures the speed of light, indirectly, in various liquids.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN May 1975 (v.232#5) pg. 109
How to construct an amateur's version of A.A. Michelson's apparatus for measuring the speed of light.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Oct 1975 (v.233#4) pg. 120
How to create and observe a dozen or more higher-order rainbows in a single drop of water. How to set up an apparatus to make the water bead, illuminate it and measure the angles through which the light rays are deflected. Includes a chart of calculated angles of the first twenty rainbows.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Jul 1977 (v.237#1) pg. 138
Lessons in wave interference demonstrated by observing the colors in a soap film.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Sep 1978 (v.239#3) pg. 232
Added Info SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Jun 1979 (v.240#6) pg. 198
An analysis of caustics, those mathematical curves (patterns) generated when light reaches a surface by refraction or reflection.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Sep 1983 (v.249#3) pg. 190
The amateur scientist. A ball bearing aids in the study of light. It also serves as a kind of "lens". A study of diffraction utilizing laser beams.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Nov 1984 (v.251#5) pg. 186
Experiments with a retroreflector array, a mirror that removes distortion from a light beam.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Apr 1986 (v.254#4) pg. 118
Experiments with color patterns in soap film.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Aug 1987 (v.257#2) pg. 104
Analysis of shadows cast on the bottom of a pool of water. Looks at the impact of refraction, divergence, convergence, etc.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Jul 1988 (v.259#1) pg. 116
What do phonograph records have in common with windshield wipers? An analysis of the 1963 study by J.B. Lott on the reflection of light from an elliptical section of an ellipsoid and other circular arrays.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Jul 1989 (v.261#1) pg. 106
Producing light from a bubble of air. Turn sound into light through a process called "sonoluminescence". Piezoelectric transducers are cemented to a glass flask filled with water and powered by an audio generator and amplifier. Bubbles introduced into the water produce a dim light visible in a darkened room.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Feb 1995 (v.272#2) pg. 96
Astronomical computing. Computer program, written in BASIC, calculates the dispersion of light through a glass prism. The program fits the Hartmann formula to three lines of known wavelength.
SKY & TELESCOPE Jun 1985 (v.69#6) pg. 545