Floating coins

Floating Coins Monday, 14th January, 2008Look at the two coins in this basin! The strange thing is that I only put one coin in the basin. Why can we see 2? We can see 2 coins because of the refraction of light. The coin is actually on the bottom of the basin but the water in the basin bends the light so it looks like there is also a coin floating on the top of the water.
We played a game. We tried to cover the coins at the bottom with other coins. It is so hard to do because the light is bent so we never really know where the coins are.