Experiment: Putting a coloured drawing (rainbow outlined in black) into a pot of water.
Materials:
– Coloured drawing in ziplock bag (outline drawing with black Sharpie on the outside of the ziplock bag- I didn’t tell the students until the explanation)
– Huge pot of water
Observations and Results:
The colours in the rainbow “disappeared” when it entered the water.
Explanation:
Refraction happens when light bends as it passes from one transparent material into another (in this case, air to water). Light travelling through air changes direction when it hits water. This makes it look like the colours magically disappear.