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?
In: 78
It’s actually a fairly simple yet complicated process.
– When light hits the layer of oil, some light bounces back (off the surface), and some goes through the surface.
– Then, the stuff that went through the surface continues down, reflects off the water below, and *then* comes back up.
– When the second “part” of the light comes back through the initial surface, there are now two streams of light, with the second one travelling *ever so slightly* farther than the first one.
– This different causes their EMR to go through constructive/destructive interference, which makes certain wavelengths of light show.
– These colors that present themselves are the colors you see.
Edit: u/YourAmazingNeighbor explained this [a little more simply,](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/11hi1mo/eli5_why_does_oil_on_water_turn_rainbow_colored/jatoy0c/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) check it out if you’re still confused.
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