#parkinglotphysics

[physicsinpictures]

What’s this colorful object in the parking lot after a rainstorm? It’s a layer of oil (leaked from a car’s engine) that’s thickest in the center and thinnest around the edges. Light reflects from the top of the oil and from the top of the water. When the thickness of the oil layer is exactly equal to the wavelength of the light, these two reflections destructively interfere and that specific color of light gets canceled out (so we see the rest of the reflected colors). #physics #oilandwater #reflections #destructiveinterference #optics #weatherphysics #parkinglotphysics #science #openscience #instagood #elearning #highered #sofantastic #job #mindblown #todayilearned #instaphysics #chicago #illinois (at Chicago, Illinois)