top of page

the camera obsucra assessment 

what a camera obscura 

With a camera obscura, you can perfectly capture the world around you by projecting what's on the outside down into a darkened space on the inside. 

And you don't need a power source.

That means it's not 'magic' — but it is really useful science.

The earliest known written account of a camera obscura was provided by a Chinese philosopher called Mo-tzu (or Mozi) in 400BC. He noted that light from an illuminated object that passed through a pinhole into a dark room created an inverted image of the original object.

In the 4th century BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle realised that a partial eclipse could be viewed by looking at the ground beneath a tree. The crescent shape of the partially eclipsed sun projected onto the ground through the holes in a sieve and through the gaps between the leaves allowing him to view it safely.

bottom of page