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Why does petrol create a rainbow on water?

Imagine you're a superhero with the power to see really, really tiny things. Now, let's say you're looking at a puddle of water with some petrol spilled on it. What would you see? Well, you'd see that the petrol is made up of super tiny particles called molecules. These molecules are like little mirrors that reflect light.

But here's the twist! When light hits these petrol molecules, something funky happens. The light doesn't just bounce off in one piece. Instead, it splits into different colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. This is because light is actually made up of all these colors (think about what happens when you shine white light through a prism), and each color travels at a slightly different speed when it hits the petrol.

So why does this create a rainbow effect? Well, when all these different-colored lights bounce off the petrol and hit your eyes at slightly different angles, your brain puts them together as a shiny spectrum of colors - a rainbow! And that's why petrol creates a rainbow on water: it's all about how light interacts with those tiny petrol molecules.

And remember - next time you see a rainbow in a puddle of petrol, just think: there's an entire superhero-worthy science story happening right there under your nose!