Q&A for How to Make a Kaleidoscope

Anything small that you find pretty of interesting. For example, you could use: beads, sequins, or little scraps of shiny paper.

You add a plastic wrap cover and add it to the bottom before adding beads and decorate it more.

Kaleidoscopes are rarely "useful," but they are pretty and interesting to look at. They are also an interesting study of light and mirrors.

Actually, it depends on the size of the mirrors. They should fit inside the cylinder without being loose.

Any plastic container that fits (the end tube and can be attached after filling with beads, glitter etc.). You could consider using tiny plastic nick-knack screw-on jars as the dry cell chamber. Try out a few objects for size.

To reflect the light that is coming in and/or also to reflect the view inside the kaleidoscope in some of them.

Use any kind of reflective packaging, like the glossy cardboard you can sometimes find in make-ups or even food. You can also try it with a glass-slides like the ones you use in microscopes, painting one side black.

Yes. Just paint the other side of a glass slide with black or any reflective color.

As long as the paper is opaque and does not let light through, you can use any color or type of paper that you'd like for the cover.

It's not, since you can use reflective papers or plain mirrors.

Most of the time 3 mirror strips are used, but you can add more.

What one of the tutorials showed on YouTube was a way to bypass the beads by taking a sheet of plastic and six magic markers of different colors and then coloring the plastic sheet. Then they cut the plastic into small pieces and the outcome was very lovely.

Yes, you can use any reflective material. However, the more reflective it is the better it will work, which is why mirror is ideal.

The mirrors should face inwards. If they face outwards (towards the outside of the tube instead of towards the center of the tube), the reflective surfaces will not be visible when you look through the viewing hole, so there will be no kaleidoscope effect to see.

It doesn't matter whether the beads are even or not. Try experimenting and having fun with it!

You can use any shaped container that can be held and looked through; however, the interior needs to have angled mirrors facing inward in order for the kaleidoscope effect to occur.

Yes, there are no limitations. You can have ends that turn with the scope, or separately from the scope. The colored objects can be inside the scope or outside. The mirrors don't have to be an equilateral triangle - isosceles, 2 mirrors, or lots of other configurations are possible.

You can use parchment paper, although it won't be as clear.