Reflection

Welcome to this workshop post! Let me share a fun workshop on creating a Pepper’s ghost illusion. This workshop was part the Lightwave team’s repertoire when visiting schools.

Pepper’s ghost is an illusion technique which could be used in theatres for example. The idea is to reflect the image of an object off-stage to create a ghostly image on-stage. This technique was popularized by John Henry Pepper in 1862.

More precisely, the physical object to be reflected is place in a room non-visible from the audience. There is a transparent surface at a specific angle between this hidden room and the stage. The object is then illuminated, and reflected on this transparent surface.

The angle formed between the stage, hidden room by the transparent sheet is important. It must be so that the reflected light is directed towards the stage, so the ghostly image can appear. The first law of reflection explains it: the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. Also written as:

This workshop will use this concept to create a Pepper’s ghost illusion. The aim is to learn about reflection and how it can be used to create illusions and much more!

In this workshop, students will:

• make a successful projection pyramid.
• use their projection pyramid to observe a Pepper’s ghost
• learn more about reflection, refraction, transmission, and transparent and translucent materials
• learn how we see in 3D

Below, there is a presentation to support workshop delivery, some teacher notes on how to run the workshop, and a template for projection pyramids, but this could be an opportunity to draw pyramid templates autonomously.