Halloween Decorations Using Fiber Optics

When light goes from one medium to another it does two things, some of the light reflects and some refracts, or changes angle.  If it is going from something like glass to air, where the index of refraction, or the number that determines how far it refracts, is lower on the other side of the surface, the light refracts at a wider angle then it strikes the surface.  When that wider angle is so wide, as happens when light strikes a surface close to parallel to the surface, that the refracted ray is not in the new medium all of the light is reflected back into the glass.  So, light traveling along a thin piece of glass is always fully refracted back into the glass, even if the glass is bent.  In communications, the light is from a laser, but in decorations any light source will do.

Light does scatter when it interacts with the molecules making up the glass, so some light scatters at an angle that allows it to escape the glass.  This is a small amount, but does allow the fiber to appear illuminated from within.  Most of the light will stay in the fiber and reach the end of that fiber, lighting the decoration in an unusual way.  

An unusual appearance of the decoration can be beautiful, or can be eerie.  Halloween requires the eerie appearance, and that is just what happens.  Of course a well selected subject can also help.

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The introduction imageis in public domain.