Home▸Optics & Light▸Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope (2D)

Interactive 2D kaleidoscope: move your pointer to place a light source between N mirror planes and watch the law of reflection build the full dihedral image out of real mirror geometry.

Optics & Light2DEasy60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This 2D simulator rebuilds a classic mirror kaleidoscope on canvas: a wedge of N mirror planes meets at the tube's center, and every point you trace with the pointer is reflected by real dihedral mirror geometry — angle of incidence equal to angle of reflection at each plane — into N rotational copies and N mirror-flipped copies that tile the full circle. Adjust the mirror count to change the wedge angle and image count, toggle the mirror planes on to see the reflecting surfaces themselves, and watch the live readout report the exact wedge angle, virtual image count and angle of incidence for the point you are currently drawing.

⚙ Under the hood

Draw with your pointer inside a canvas kaleidoscope tube and watch real mirror geometry reflect it into a full symmetric ring of images.

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install