Bic

A composition of my favourite type of everyday pen, the brilliant Bic Biro. Apart from being about the only French non military or service exporter I know Bic Biro's are really are the best. I'm so familiar with them I can tell roughly how much ink is left in them balancing one on my finger (I know their centre of gravity well) as of course I can spin them around my fingers!

In the photo I've used the affect of TIR (Total Internal Reflection) in order to make the whole pen light up. For those unaware of the physics behind TIR a quick summary, light in the pen is at such small angles (less than critical angle) so that most of the light bounces off the plastic air boundary so sneaky light will escape as it exceeds the angle, thus illuminating the whole pen! This is the same process used in fibre optic cables. Anyway I'm in the process of thinking of other photo experiments I could use TIR in. That's without mentioning the amazing design of biro's or their history. That's right I know probably know too much about them!