Make a Rainbow

This is one of the simplest experiments we will do together, but it does require some advanced planning.  Check the forecast because you need sunshine for this experiment, but all the other materials are things you have around your house! 

What you need: 

White paper

Glass filled 3/4 with water

Sunny day

What you do:

Go outside or hold the glass near a window positioning the glass between the sunshine and your white paper.  

Slowly move the glass and paper until you see the rainbow! 

That’s it! You can click here to see my video demonstration (it was a really windy day, so this might also give you a good chuckle if you need that today).

When you see a rainbow in the sky, the light from the sun is passing through small droplets of water in the air.  The same thing is happening here – the sunlight is passing through the water in your glass.  As the visible light passes through the water and back into the air, it gets separated into all the different colors on the visible spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. You can see those different wavelengths in the image below from NASA.