National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network

This lab is designed to help students understand how light waves interact with matter. This activity is analogous to light traveling through optical media having different indices of refraction (densities). This lesson connects with the Big Ideas in Nanoscale Science (Stevens et al, 2009; NSTA Press) Big Idea – Forces and Interactions (All interactions can be described by multiple types of forces, but the relative impact of each type of force changes with scale. On the nanoscale, a range of electrical forces, with varying strengths, tend to dominate the interactions between objects.)