AMAZING: LIGHT IN A BOTTLE

 How ingenuity works.  The innovative idea of lighting the homes of millions of people deprived of this basic necessity just by refracting light, has become a rage in Brazil and Philippines. Alfredo Moser, a Brazilian mechanic, in a streak of genius, hit upon this idea of fixing a capped plastic bottle  filled with water and a few spoons of bleach on his roof enabling sunlight to refract through the bottle and light up his room at  no expense. 

Refraction is a phenomenon of bending of light as it passes from one medium to another caused by the differences in the densities of the mediums. The bending is resultant of the change in the speed of light as it passes through the different mediums of varying densities. 

A 1.5 litre plastic bottle is filled with water. A few spoons of bleach is mixed in water for preserving it against formation of algae. It is then capped with a black colour cap which work best for this purpose. Then a hole is drilled through the roof of the room and the bottle is fixed in it- partially out and partially hanging inside the room- with the help of a glue or a sealant. Rest of the work is done by sunlight which refracts from outside through the bottle into the room lighting it up to equivalent to nearly 40 W to 60 W light bulb.  

Vast population in Philippines and other developing countries live below the poverty line. Cost of electricity is extremely high and power cuts are a regular feature. MyShelter Foundation of Philippines has caught upon Moser’s idea and is now training people to install these lamps themselves at home. It costs nothing and provides electricity during the day resulting in energy saving. Other developing nations like India, Argentina, Bangladesh are also catching up on this novel mechanism of garnering Sun’s energy and using it to light up homes.