An Improved Box Theater

Huster, Michael E.

doi:doi:10.1119/1.3628262

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The Physics Teacher -- September 2011 -- Volume 49, Issue 6, pp. 356

An Improved Box Theater

Michael E. Huster

Nyack College, Manhattan and Nyack, NY

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While designing an optics lab for a conceptual physics course, I came across a “box theater” activity.¹ The box theater is a pinhole camera obscura made from a box that students put over their heads and shoulders. I use the activity as a capstone experience to explain optical systems. (Classroom demonstrations of the camera obscura have been described by others.²) First, the students build and experiment with a camera obscura made from a plastic cup and a convex lens with a focal length of 7.5 cm, and then “wear” the box theater. The difficulty with the box theater is the dimness of the image. A cloth drape has to be hung from the bottom of the box around the shoulders of the students to prevent light leakage, and the students have to wait a few minutes for their eyes to adjust to the darkness.