Mirror Mirror Nina and the Neurons

# If you've got a question and you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help, cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of her senses While helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments with potions and with bangs

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue!

-# Fingers

-Fingers!

-# Eyes

-Eyes!

-Ears

-Ears!

-Nose

-Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Luke, he helps us with our eyes and Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells And Belle, she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother, he helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's little neurons And they're coming to your place!

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue!

-# Fingers

-Fingers!

-# Eyes

-Eyes!

-Ears

-Ears!

-Nose

-Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Oh, yeah! #

-NINA HUMS

-Oh, hello.

There we go, some lovely flowers to brighten up the workshop.

-BEEPING

-Oh!

I hear a beep, I see a flash, I wonder what they're going to ask.

ALL: Hi, Nina.

-Hi.

-We've got a question for you.

How does a mirror work?

That's a great question.

A mirror is a brilliant invention

because without it we wouldn't know what we looked like!

My hair would be very messy.

Come down to my workshop and we'll check it out.

See you soon, Nina. Bye!

Bye!

I'll need help to answer this one and I know just who to ask.

OK, Neurons, time to get to work.

ALL: Neurons at the ready, Nina.

OK, today's question is how does a mirror work?

Which Neuron do you think would be most helpful in finding the answer?

ALL: Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!

Will it be Fabulous Felix?

I can help so very much, if you need the sense of touch.

Will it be Beautiful Belle?

I send messages to brain from ear, if there's a sound I help you hear.

-Will it be Lovely Luke?

-For looking and seeing day or night,

I'll help you with your sense of sight.

Will it be Awesome Ollie?

If it's pongy or wiffy and you can't tell,

my messages help your sense of smell.

-Or will it be baby Bud?

-Sour, salty, bitter or sweet,

I'm your taste buddy whenever you eat.

BEEPING

-It's Luke!

-Yes!

# Go, Luke, go, Luke

# Go, Luke, go, Luke

# Go, Luke, go, Luke

-# Go, Luke. #

-Cool, Nina.

I'll be looking out to help ya.

Today's question is how does a mirror work?

Since we look at a mirror, Luke will help us today.

Standby, Neurons, I may need you all.

I need to get the workshop ready before the inventors arrive.

Morven, Rachel and Ciara want to find out about mirrors.

Big mirrors, tiny mirrors and very, very shiny mirrors.

So for one day only, Morven, Rachel and Ciara become the Inventors!

-Hi, guys.

-Hi, Nina.

-Come on in.

Why do you want to know how a mirror works?

Cos we love looking in the mirror.

We pull funny faces and see who looks silliest.

That's a brilliant game.

Shall we have a go at it in my mirror? Over here, guys.

Ho, ho, ho! Let's pull some funny faces...

NINA LAUGHS

Ha, ha. I can't decide who looks the silliest.

-They are all doing a good job.

-Yeah!

Ha! They all look really silly.

Ho! This is a great game!

Do you notice when you look in the mirror, you can see two of you?

There's Nina 1 and Nina 2.

So anything you put in front of a mirror you can see two of them.

Nina is right. When you stand in front of a mirror,

another one of you appears in it. Just like that!

-Do you notice anything unusual about the reflection?

-ALL: No.

The mirror bounces the picture back at you, so it's not an exact copy.

The best way to show this is with words.

Let's go over to my desk.

Let's all take the lids off of our pen,

and write out names on the paper.

Nice and big.

Now, Morven, do you want to hold your name up in front of the mirror?

That name doesn't look right! The letters are all funny.

Great, now, Ciara.

-My name is back to front.

-That's because the mirror

bounces the letters back at you.

So they appear back to front.

So any picture you see in the mirror looks back to front. Hm...

We need to get inside for a closer look.

Taking things apart is my job, it can be dangerous, so don't do this.

That's right. Nina has been specially trained to do this.

You could get hurt taking things apart. Best leave it to the experts.

So here is a mirror...

Just going to turn it over.

I can peel the backing off here.

I might even use my Nina-cam for a closer look.

Oh!

What do you think this is?

-Is it metal?

-Yes.

A mirror is actually a thin piece of metal.

Sometimes like this and sometimes sprayed onto glass using chemicals.

It's this shiny metal that makes a mirror work.

And...the glass on the mirror...

is there to stop the metal crinkling and getting scratched and also...

Ooh!

..to make the mirror

really smooth because the smoother and shinier a mirror,

the better the pictures in it.

I know something very big and exciting that uses mirrors.

-Shall we go and see another invention in action?

-ALL: Yes!

Let's go!

Off they go. I really enjoy seeing the big inventions.

LUKE: So we're going somewhere big and exciting that uses mirrors.

BUD: Great! Will we be able to make more silly faces?

BELLE: We'll find out soon. We're nearly there.

-So here is the invention we've come to see.

-A lighthouse.

-Yes.

To see how it uses mirrors, we need to get closer. Come on!

-This lighthouse is amazing!

-I know!

We've come up to the top to look at this -

the lighthouse lamp. It turns round,

shining its light out to sea so the ships know there are rocks nearby.

If you look at the lamp,

you can see it's made up of lots of smaller lights.

Here's an example. What can you see at the back of the light?

-A mirror.

-Right. Like a mirror bounces back a picture of our face,

these mirrors bounce back the light making them seem even brighter.

Of course the lighthouse lamp isn't on now but it's getting dark.

I wonder if the lighthouse keeper is ready to turn it on. Let's go.

-Excuse me, Barry, is it time to turn on the lamp?

-Yes, it is.

CLICK!

-Oh! Shall we go outside and see what it looks like?

-Yes!

-It's really bright.

-Yes!

The mirrors are working well, helping the lamp shine brightly.

Would you look at how shiny that light is.

Even though it's dark, all the ships will be able to see it,

and make their way home safely.

OK, time to go back to the workshop and get inventing. Let's go!

Mirrors are used for all different kinds of things

but who invented the mirror?

Listen up, I can tell you that.

Throughout history girls and boys have been desperate to know

what they look like.

But nobody had a mirror! They had to use shiny objects, like water.

They even tried looking into each other's eyes.

That changed when they discovered if they polished rocks, for hours,

they could see their own reflection in them.

It was like the first ever mirror!

Your question was, how does a mirror work? We've found out a mirror

is made of metal to reflect and of glass to make it smooth and shiny.

We also know that a mirror reflects

everything in front of it. But what is a reflection?

How does it work? Let's get inventing to find out.

So, take your scissors...

and cut out all of these shapes. OK?

Now we've cut out all the shapes, we'll stick down our green shape

and our red donut.

Next we'll cut these shapes out.

Grab your scissors!

Now we'll stick the stickyback plastic and the clear plastic.

They'll go on top like this.

-I love the sound of that.

-I hope it's not crinkly when it's on, Belle.

It needs to be smooth or we won't see their reflections properly.

Now let's take our clear plastic...

and stick it on top of the shiny plastic. OK?

Then we'll put our red donut around the edge to frame our mirror.

There you have it. Well done, inventors.

We have made our very own mirrors.

-I can see myself in it.

-Yes.

We look in our mirror and it bounces our reflection back.

Well done, inventors.

# Nina and the Neurons... #

Your question was, how does a mirror work? I think we've answered it.

We found out a mirror bounces back a copy of everything in front of it.

A mirror is made of metal for shininess and

glass to make it extra smooth.

Because of this it reflects pictures.

But when we see a picture in a mirror it's called a reflection.

It's back to front as the mirror is bouncing the picture straight back.

So thanks very much for your brilliant question.

ALL: Thanks, Nina, bye!

Take care.

To make today's invention, go to the Nina section on the website.

That'll give you all the instructions.

Or you may have other ideas of what you want to invent.

-Bikes!

-Trains!

-Binoculars!

-Televisions!

-Speakers!

-And cars!

# We all love inventing

# Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh Go inventing!

# We all love inventing

# Why don't you try it too?

# Inventions make life easier

# And help us get things done

# Go inventing!

# I always like to take a look

# At how they work and run

# Go inventing!

# We all love inventing

# Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh Go inventing!

# We all love inventing Why don't you try it too? #

I've had a fabby day!

Looking at everyone's reflections in the smooth shiny mirror, ha ha!

Especially when they made those silly faces!

It's been such a great day, man.

It was amazing when they peeled away the back of the mirror.

I'd never seen that before.

It's been a marvellous day.

Seeing the lamp and mirrors at the lighthouse was fascinating.

I really enjoyed myself today.

The lighthouse light was SO bright,

even in the darkness you could still smell the salty sea.

I've had a brilliant day!

I loved it when everyone made their own mirror. Fabulous!

-We've had a great time, I hope you've enjoyed it too.

-BYE!

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