Why does gasoline when it is spilled on pavement produce rainbow colors on the surface?

Answer 1

A small leprechaun lives in the gasoline, and when he's finally sprung from the purgatory of a gas can or gas line, he celebrates like it's 1883.

Another fun fact: Malort's Whiskey tastes a lot like gasoline.

Answer 2

If you are referring to the shining stuff on the pavenment in parking lots, it is not gasoline, it is engine oil, which does not react and skims over the surface of the water= polution. that is why you have to dispose to the oil properly.

Gasoline evaporates rather quickly and should not produce rainbow colors on the surface.

engine oil does because it refracts the light causing a color change from the perspective of the viewer.

Answer 3

The variation of thickness in the layer of gas (oil) creates different colors because the wavelength of each color has a resonance effect when the thickness is appropriate. This creates a interference colors. Below is a link to a site that explains the phenomenon in exquisite detail.

Answer 4

It is caused by dispersion of light passing through the thin layer of oil.

In optics, dispersion is a phenomenon that causes the separation of a wave into spectral components with different wavelengths, due to a dependence of the wave's speed on its wavelength. It is most often described in light waves, but it may happen to any kind of wave that interacts with a medium or can be confined to a waveguide, such as sound waves. Dispersion is sometimes called chromatic dispersion to emphasize its wavelength-dependent nature.

Answer 5

same reasons you see rainbows in bubbles. The film is so thin it is around the thickness of the wavelength of light. This causes interference patterns which cause the colour

Answer 6

the gasolien wants to be like skittles!!!(duh) lick it see if u can taste the rainbow
i bet u can