Fun with Fringes!

From left to right: here are two identical images of parallel black lines on a white background with a plus sign between them. There is then an equal sign and an image of the two identical images overlapped with one of the images tilted at a 45 degree angle. This creates an interesting new line pattern.

Whoa! That’s cool! What is happening here?

When two sets of lines are overlapped, a new pattern can appear. These dark and light patterns are called fringes. The fringes occur when the lines cross over each other, making it darker in some areas and lighter in others.

Explore more about how these help scientists and engineers solve problems and ask more questions about the materials they are working to understand with our new kit and additional resources all about Fun with Fringes!

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Click the image below for the downloadable activity guide!

A screenshot of the front page of the Fun with Fringes kit.

Pattern Pages (click each image to download)

Original Patterns

Four identical rectangles of straight black lines.

Patterns A-D 

Four rectangles with straight black lines. Each rectangle has a diagonal dashed line that starts just past the outer right line and extends up to the left through the fourth black line from the right. The first is labeled "A-original" and has parallel black lines. The second is labeled "B-stretched" which also has paralell black lines that have wider space than "A-original." The third is labeled "C-squeezed" and has parallel lines that have less space between them than "A-original." The final and fourth is labeled "D-imperfect" which has a variety of different spacing between each of the black lines.

 Patterns E-H

This image has four rectangular shapes with different variations of solid black lines. The first image is labeled "E-imperfect 2" and has solid black lines on a white background with varying spacing in between. The second image is labeled "F-imperfect 3" and has solid black lines on a white background with different spacing than the first image. The third image is labeled "G- pinching defect" and has wavy black lines on a white background. The fourth image is labeled "H-mystery defect" and has some solid and some wavy black lines on a white background.

 

Click the image below for downloadable math application extension!

A screenshot of the second page of the Fun with Fringes kit.

 

Download instructions to build your own Fun with Fringes kit!