No, that's more or less the right idea. Wikipedia actually has a decent explanation:Entropee said:The crests and troughs of certain colors of light cancel each other out, so the oil displays all the colors that aren't canceled out. I may have something wrong there but that was my understanding of it, same goes for soap bubbles if you were wondering about those too.
Also please correct me if I have said something wrong here.
netheril96 said:I just wonder why you didn't notice such thing until recently
I noticed early in my childhood
Oil shows different colors because it is a mixture of different types of organic compounds, each with its own unique properties. When light hits the oil, it is refracted and reflected differently depending on the composition and thickness of the oil layer, resulting in different colors being observed.
This rainbow-like effect is caused by the interference of light as it passes through the thin layer of oil. The different colors of light have different wavelengths and when they pass through the oil layer, they interfere with each other, creating the rainbow-like effect.
Some oils appear iridescent because they contain molecules that have a repeating pattern, which causes light to be diffracted and reflected in different directions. This creates the iridescent effect, where the color of the oil changes depending on the angle at which it is viewed.
This is due to the thickness of the oil layer. When the oil layer is thick, multiple colors can be observed because different wavelengths of light are being reflected at different angles. This is similar to the effect seen in soap bubbles.
The colors of oil can appear different under different lighting conditions because the type of light, its intensity, and the angle at which it hits the oil can all affect how light is reflected and refracted through the oil layer. This can result in different colors being observed.