Infinity tunnel

An infinity portal in your hands!

Difficulty:
Danger:
Duration:
20 minutes

Safety

  • Carefully review the general safety advice in the instruction book before starting the experiment.
  • Read the "Working with batteries" section of the safety guidelines carefully before proceeding. Always disconnect the setup after finishing the experiment.
  • Keep new and used coin cell batteries away from children.
  • Be careful working in dim lighting.
  • Disassemble the setup after the experiment.

Step-by-step instructions

Are you ready to create a magic tunnel or a small black hole in your mirror? Then let's get to work!

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Use an LED strip to illuminate your tunnel.

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Connect the LED strip to the batteries.

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The infinite reflections of the light strip between the mirrors creates an endless tunnel.

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Excited to make your homemade portal portable?

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Disposal

  • Dispose of used batteries in accordance with local regulations.
  • Dispose of solid waste together with household garbage.

Scientific description

Set two mirrors  to face each other, and they create a seemingly-endless series of reflections! In this experiment, it’s the reflection of the LED strip itself and a large number of repeated reflections (mirror images of preceding images). These repeated reflections in the mirrors create an illusion of lights receding further and further into the distance, giving rise to an infinity tunnel phenomenon.

With every following mirror image, some of the light  is reflected back at the observer, and you perceive it as a series of images shifted at even intervals to form a light tunnel. Interestingly, it may seem that the tunnel’s depth depends on external lighting: the dimmer the surrounding lights, the deeper the tunnel.

Given that one of your mirrors is a one-way mirror, you can observe the tunnel through it, i.e. see what’s happening in between the mirrors without actually sticking your head in between the mirrors!