Chaotic Ornaments

To provide another intriguing dose of holiday physics in addition to today's Slinky story, I wanted to share this video from the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT).  In the video, Beth Cunningham and Robert C. Hilborn of AAPT show how shining a laser pointer on a triangular arrangement of ornaments produces a chaotic movement of light between the ornaments. 

You can try this at home.  But remember never to point laser light directly at your eyes or at any other human or pet!  As a bonus, the video also shows how holiday lights appear through a diffraction grating, an object that splits the lights into their component colors. 

Happy Holidays to all of our readers from the Inside Science team!