catch a fish , he said

An invitation to follow the illusion, extended by a young man who supervises the pattern pod in the science museum ... " Try and catch a fish " , he said , " It is late in the day and they will all be tired " ...




First tentatively ...



then with gusto and the whole body Maya leapt about in the floor chasing lifelike images of swimming goldfish .. every time she touched the floor the " water rippled" ... an illusion in and off itself as one could feel nothing else but the hard floor ... yet the eyes perceived swimming fish, and watery ripples ..

At first we thought there must be a touch sensor underneath the image that reacted to pressure and in turn make the water ripple ..


It took us a little while to observe that even without touch and by merely interrupting the projection of the light flow ... the water rippled and the fish swam into the opposite direction .

The suggestion , to catch a fish, had led us down a perceived path, easily, blindly, predictably followed ... and we could have stopped there, if not the nagging thoughts " What if " and " How come " had made their presence known..

Today I am grateful that we are homeschooling and have the luxury of time, time to throw our whole body into a curious investigation

M&m