Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Oil spot

The detergents in motor oil spread out on the surface of water to make colorful oil spots.  The varying colors result from destructive interference of white light by the varying thickness of the organic layer. Sometimes this thickness is less than 100 nm, making it a nanoscale structure. The pattern of yellow to purple to blue moving from the outside inward into the pattern as the light-interfering layer gets thicker also shows up in other structures.

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