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← Little Scientists TechnologyRecording change10 minutesStd 1–2

One Photo a Day

✨ Flicking through seven photos makes a plant that never seems to move suddenly grow before your eyes.

Four photo frames taken from the same spot with the same ruler, showing a plant a little taller each day, and an arrow saying that swiping through them quickly makes a time-lapse.
How it works

🧰 You need

  • an adult's phone camera
  • a potted plant or your bean jar
  • a sticky note for the date
  • a piece of tape to mark where you stand
  • a ruler to stand beside the pot

⚠️ Use an adult's phone with permission.

👀 What you will see

Each single photo looks almost the same as the day before. Swiped quickly, the plant clearly stretches upwards and new leaves unfold. The ruler in the picture shows how many centimetres it gained.

🧪 Do it

  1. Stand the plant in one spot and mark the floor with tape where you will put your feet.
  2. Stand the ruler behind the pot so every photo shows the same scale.
  3. Take one photo at the same time each day, from the same tape mark.
  4. Write the date on a sticky note and hold it in the corner of the picture.
  5. After a week, swipe quickly through all the photos in order.
  6. Say out loud which day showed the biggest change.

💡 Why it happens

Some changes happen too slowly for eyes to notice, but a camera keeps an exact record that does not fade like memory. By standing in the same place at the same time with the same ruler in view, you make every photo comparable, and keeping conditions the same like this is called a fair test. Playing the photos quickly is called a time-lapse, and scientists use it to watch glaciers, clouds and growing cells.

🔁 Now try this

Photograph a second plant of the same kind that you water only half as often, and compare the two sets of photos.

🤔 Think about it

What else around your home changes too slowly to watch, but would show up in a week of photos?

🧘 Ask the Acharya

“What else around your home changes too slowly to watch, but would show up in a week of photos?” — ask him and he will explain it from your own chapters.

Ask Guru →

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