Whenever you see petroleum oil spilled on a wet surface, it turns rainbow colored. That doesn’t happen with olive oil, or other liquids. Why do petroleum products change color that way?
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Oil on the water appears rainbow colored due to the phenomenon called “thin-film interference.” When light waves pass through a thin film of oil on top of the water, some of the waves are reflected off the surface of the oil and some pass through the oil and reflect off the surface of the water below.
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