What are stripes or swirls?

Stripes and swirls are patterns that show how things change from one place to another, like when you walk across a room or dip your toe in the water.

Imagine you're wearing stripes on your shirt, they’re like lines that go straight up and down. If you look closely, you can see that each stripe is a little different from its neighbor, just like how one step feels slightly different from the next when you walk.

Now think about swirls, like in a bowl of soup when it starts to cool off, the surface moves in circles, kind of like when you stir your cereal with a spoon. Swirls show movement and change that twist around, just like how water flows when you splash it.

When light hits something, it can create stripes if there are regular changes in texture or color, like the lines on a zebra. For swirls, it’s more about how things move or mix together, like paint mixing on a canvas or wind blowing through leaves.

You can find stripes and swirls everywhere, on your socks, in clouds, even in your favorite cookie! They help us see how things are changing around us, just like your eyes notice when you're walking from one room to another.