Physics · Glossary

What is Iridescence?

Definition 22.17 High School Physics · Chapter 22 — Light as a Wave: Diffraction and Interference

Colors that shift with the viewing angle — soap bubbles, oil slicks, peacock feathers, the back of a CD — are iridescence: no pigment, but interference in white light, reinforcing some wavelengths and canceling others.

Examples

Example 22.18 (Soap films and oil slicks)

Light striking a soap film reflects partly off its front face, partly off its back: two coherent copies whose path difference is set by the thickness and the viewing angle. Each thickness returns some wavelengths reinforced, others canceled: the film reflects a color that slides as it drains and thins. An oil slick on wet asphalt plays the same trick.

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