Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello, I'm working on a chronic adaptation project that I found off the Science Buddies' Project Ideas Quiz. There is an image provided with the project; but I would rather use another if one could be provided.

The image needs to be much like the one given in the project example here.

I've googled Chronic Adaptation and such things in hope of getting a better image but have come up with nothing. If you could take a look and see if there's anywhere you know one might be it would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

kw_2008,

Thank you for giving us so many details to work with--that really helps!

I don't know of any existing images like that, so what I would suggest is that you make your own. It shouldn't be too difficult if you have a paint program like Photoshop or even something similar. In fact, you could experiment with different colors to see if they have any effect on the results of the experiment.

In order to make the photographs, you'll need a picture to work with. Once you have the picture, you can highlight half of it and then find an option called 'color balance' (at least in my paint program). You can then make it more or less red, green or blue. Then highlight the other half and do the opposite. Finally, you'll want to put a dot in the center and make another image that's the same size as the first with the dot in the same place. Color the halves appropriately, depending on how you manipulated the color in your photograph.

If you get stuck, let me know. If you don't have Photoshop, perhaps you could ask around your school--if you're in high school, the staff of the yearbook or the school newspaper might be able to help you find a computer with a copy of a program like that.

I think its because you have a typo in what you searched - you need to search for "Chromatic Adaptation" not chronic. I didn't find all that much - the second hit has one with a family or the plane picture again.

But you could construct your own picture using a filter over any photograph that you have. You would need to use a filter that matches the colors in the training square. The best filters would be if you have a digital image of the photograph and can use sotware to add the filter. But you could get it to work with a colored piece of acetate over half a regular photograph. If you can't get colored acetate you might be even able to use one of those plastic folders or report covers that is see-through but colored if you can find a yellow one or a cyan/blue one. Or you might be able to use a piece of glass stained with craft ink for doing stain glass window projects to make your own filter. You could turn making the new picture into a part of your experiment and see which materials work best.

Best of luck,
Caroline

Thank you both.

Your answers proved very helpful, and I ended up finding a much better image to use for my project.

Once again thank you for you help!