-
Asked by to Daren, Lynne, Phillip, Simon on 23 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
-
Daren Fearon answered on 23 Jun 2014:
The surface of bubbles made of things like washing up liquid is made of liquid which has a different refractive index than air. This means it bends light slightly when it passes through the liquid. The different colours of light have different wavelengths and are bent to different degrees, so the light splits (kind of like with a prism) and you can see the colours.
-
-
Lynne Thomas answered on 25 Jun 2014:
This is actually due to the way that the light travels through the surface of the bubble. A bubble is basically a very thin layer of water which is sandwiched on either side by something called a surfactant (which is essentially a soap, something like washing up liquid). When the light travels through the bubble, some of it gets reflected from the inner surface and some of it gets reflected by the outer surface. This results in something called constructive and destructive interference and causes some of the colours of the white light to be cancelled out so we only see some colours. Its called iridescence. White light is basically a mixture of all of the colours of the spectrum. If the bubble is thicker, then the colours will be stronger and if the surface ripples, you also see enhanced colour due to the different distances that the light has to travel between the inner and outer surfaces of the bubble. This website explains this much clearer than I’m able to!
-
Phillip Manning answered on 25 Jun 2014:
Soap bubble colour arise from the interference of light reflecting off the inner and outer surfaces of the soap bubble film. The thickness of the film also impacts on the different colours given they interfere…generating multiple colours.
Comments