Argue and support that brightness in stars is due to distance - 5th Grade Science

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Question

Mrs. Johnson's class is investigating the brightness of stars. Mrs. Johnson sets up the investigation, and the students begin working. The first two student volunteers held identical flashlights at an equal distance from the whiteboard. The class decides after noting the lights on the board look the same that when two stars are at an equal distance, they have the same actual brightness. For the second part of the investigation, two student volunteers held the identical flashlights at two different distances. Students observed than the flashlight that is closer to the whiteboard appears to be brighter than the flashlight that is further away from the whiteboard. Their observations are recorded in the data table below.

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What inference can the students draw from this demonstration?

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Answer

The flashlights in this demonstration are placeholders for stars. There is no way that a class can investigate a real star close up, so an alternative light source must be used. The Victoria Department of Education and Training gives some background information on stars (or a flashlight in this case), "There are more stars in the sky than anyone can easily count, but they are not scattered evenly, and they are not all the same in brightness or color." The closer a source of light is to our line of vision, the larger it will appear and the brighter. The flashlight that is only 2 feet from the board will appear brighter and more massive than the flashlight held at 4 feet.

Source: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/science/continuum/mapstars2.pdf

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