RH writes- A pseudoscope is an optical instrument made with two prisms. The mirrors in the prisms reverse the image in each eye causing some items viewed through it to look quite unusual: convex objects become concave, things pointing towards you may look like they are pointing away and vice versa. This site describes more illusions that can be seen with it and how to make one for around ten dollars (holding up 2 $5 prisms). Link.
0 thoughts on “Make a Pseudoscope”
Am I missing something, or does this not actually tell you anything about how to make one of these.
Phillip, is this for the next make issue? Or does the site not explain how to do it?
Makeblog says:
Not quite.
Text from the site:
if there’s interest, i’ll build one and post it up here- the site has a diagram, what’s needed as technicalvideo said- how to hold two $5 prisms up to your eyes…
the idea is cool, would be a great thing to show the local boys and girl scouts. (my step son and daughter)
The directions on how to build a pseudoscope are in Vol. 5 of Make Magazine (February 2006). The instructions are NOT very good – the dimensions are screwy because they don’t resemble the drawing, a 5 1/16″ measurement on the drawing is described as 5″ on the materials list, they don’t tell you where the two different sized mirrors go (they are the two end mirrors). Best to just google pseudoscope and see Rob Harmann’s site – which is very good and he recommends using 3×6 mirrors for the larger ones rather than 3×4. Recommend you convert all these measurements on the drawing to measures from the two centerlines of your base – then you can use any size base so long as it is at least 5×12.
The directions on how to build a pseudoscope are in Vol. 5 of Make Magazine (February 2006). The instructions are NOT very good – the dimensions are screwy because they don’t resemble the drawing, a 5 1/16″ measurement on the drawing is described as 5″ on the materials list, they don’t tell you where the two different sized mirrors go (they are the two end mirrors). Best to just google pseudoscope and see Rob Harmann’s site – which is very good and he recommends using 3×6 mirrors for the larger ones rather than 3×4. Recommend you convert all these measurements on the drawing to measures from the two centerlines of your base – then you can use any size base so long as it is at least 5×12.
Thanks for the feedback on the article in Make Magazine, overall I was happy with it, although some of the dimensions were wrong. Please see my web site for the correct ones:
http://pseudoscope.blogspot.com/
It’s a good idea to have the dimensions from the centerline instead of the edges of the base, I’ll fix that when I get time.
Hope you enjoy the project,
Rob Hartmann