Galaxy Experiment Top of Page Bottom of Page Flashlight Magnitude Experiment Materials Needed One flashlight for every student. When they are all lined up everyone turn their flashlights on. Standing at the end of the room you will refer to the flashlights by numbers from 1 to 17 numbering from left to right. List the numbers of the flashlights into 5 groups from 1 to 5 with 1 being brightest and 5 being dimmest. Since all the flashlights are at different distances the number of the group a flashlight is in is called the apparent magnitude of the flashlight.
Astronomers call apparent magnitude m.
1 flashlight of each absolute magnitude where it is and record on your sheet which number flashlight these are. Move all the other flashlights to the same distance as the third closest flashlight to the front of the room. We will call this distance 10 parsecs. Be sure to keep their horizontal alignment the same so we can keep them numbered 1 through 17. Now classify the 12 flashlights we moved into 5 categories by comparing then with the flashlights we didn't move.