Chapter 6:

Splashing Colors Everywhere, Like A Rainbow

To access the pdf file for all the video links and journal citations for the items in the book, click on the pdf icon for "Chapter References & Comments” at the top of the page, next to Armando Armadillo. (Go to www.Adobe.com for a free pdf reader.) To access the updates and new items (not in the book), click on any "update" or "new" in the following list.

• 6.1 Rainbows   update Nov 2011  May 2012
• 6.2 Strange rainbows    update June 2007
• 6.3 Artificial rainbows
• 6.4 The daytime sky is not dark
• 6.5 Colors of the sky    update Oct 2009
• 6.6 Blue mountains, white mountains, and red clouds
• 6.7 Sailor's warning
• 6.8 Sunsets and volcanoes
• 6.9 Bishop's ring
• 6.10 Cloud-contrast bow
• 6.11 Sky colors during a solar eclipse
• 6.12 When the sky turns green, head for the cellar
• 6.13 Enhancement of overhead blue
• 6.14 Dark patch and rosy border during sunset
• 6.15 Bright and dark shafts across the sky  update Aug 2011
• 6.16 Blue haze, red haze, brown haze
• 6.17 Lights of a distant city     update Dec 2007
• 6.18 How far is the horizon?
• 6.19 Color of overcast sky
• 6.20 Maps in the sky   update Aug 2009
• 6.21 Brighter when it snows
• 6.22 The end of a searchlight beam
• 6.23 Short story: Newgrange winter-solstice sunbeam    update Nov 2007     June 2014
• 6.24 The green flash
• 6.25 Distortions of the low sun
• 6.26 Red moon during lunar eclipse
• 6.27 Crown flash
• 6.28 Oasis mirage     update June 2007
• 6.29 Wall mirage
• 6.30 Water monsters, mermen, and large-scale mirage
• 6.31 A ghost among the flowers
• 6.32 Shimmy and twinkling stars
• 6.33 Shadow bands
• 6.34 The 22° halo and sun dogs
• 6.35 A sky full of halos, arcs, and spots
• 6.36 Mountain shadows
• 6.37 Disappearing cloud shadows
• 6.38 Colors of the ocean
• 6.39 Reflection glitter of sun and moon
• 6.40 Rings of light
• 6.41 Shadows and colors in water
• 6.42 Color of your shadow
• 6.43 Seeing the dark part of the moon   update Mar 2008
• 6.44 Heiligenschein and opposition brightening
• 6.45 Grain field waves
• 6.46 Glory
• 6.47 Corona
• 6.48 Frosty glass corona
• 6.49 Iridescent clouds
• 6.50 Blue moon     update May 2008
• 6.51 Yellow fog lights
• 6.52 Dark when wet
• 6.53 Colors of snow and ice
• 6.54 Firnspiegel and snow sparkles
• 6.55 Whiteouts and snowblindness
• 6.56 Yellow ski glasses
• 6.57 When the ice grows dark
• 6.58 Bright clouds, dark clouds
• 6.59 Noctilucent clouds
• 6.60 You in a looking glass    update Nov 2007
• 6.61 Reflections off water and a stage mirror  update Jun 2006
• 6.62 Pepper's ghost and the bodiless head
• 6.63 Tilted windows for air traffic controllers
• 6.64 Images in two or three mirrors
• 6.65 Kaleidoscopes
• 6.66 Mirror labyrinths   update May 2009
• 6.67 A sideshow laser shoot    update June 2015
• 6.68 Dark triangles among the decorations
• 6.69 Shiny turns to black; blacker than black
• 6.70 Retroreflectors
• 6.71 Short Story: Landing in the dark behind enemy lines
• 6.72 One-way mirror
• 6.73 Rear-view mirror
• 6.74 Side-view mirror    update Dec 2013
• 6.75 A Bar at the Folies-Bergère   update Dec 2010 
• 6.76 Renaissance art and optical projectors
• 6.77 Anamorphic art    update June 2007   Nov 2010
• 6.78 The bright and dark of streetlamps
• 6.79 Multiple images from double-paned windows
• 6.80 World's most powerful searchlight
• 6.81 Archimedes death ray
• 6.82 Short story: Illuminating a referee    update Dec 2007
• 6.83 Spooky lights in a graveyard
• 6.84 What a fisherman sees of a fish  update Apr 2010
• 6.85 What a fish sees of the fisherman   update Mar 2008
• 6.86 Reading through a sealed envelope   update Nov 2014
• 6.87 Short Story: Sword swallowing and esophagoscopy
• 6.88 Shower-door optics
• 6.89 Magic of refraction    update Sep 2008
• 6.90 The invisible man and transparent animals   update Feb 2008 
• 6.91 A road made crooked by refraction
• 6.92 Watering plants in sunlight
• 6.93 Starting a fire with ice
• 6.94 Diamonds
• 6.95 Opals                         update July 2006
• 6.96 Alexandrite effect
• 6.97 Star sapphire    update Jun 2015
• 6.98 Patterns from a glass of wine, a window and a drop of water
• 6.99 Shadows with bright borders and bands
• 6.100 Bright and dark bands over the wing  update Apr 2010
• 6.101 Short story: Shock waves from the Thrust SSC car
• 6.102 Pinhole and pinspeck cameras
• 6.103 Solar images beneath a tree
• 6.104 Lights through a screen, lines between fingers
• 6.105 Bright scratches and colorful webs
• 6.106 Bright streaks in a car windshield   update March 2013
• 6.107 Reflections from a phonograph record
• 6.108 Colors on finely grooved items
• 6.109 Anticounterfeiting: Optically variable devices
• 6.110 Colored rings from a misty or dusty mirror
• 6.111 Color of milk in water
• 6.112 Color of campfire smoke
• 6.113 Ouzo effect    update Aug 2014
• 6.114 Colors of oil slicks, soap films, and metal cooking pots
• 6.115 Structural colors of insects, fish, birds, and monkey butts
• 6.116 Pearls
• 6.117 Protuberances on insect eyes and stealth aircraft  update Sep 2007
• 6.118 Iridescent plants
• 6.119 Anticounterfeiting: Color-shifting inks    update May 2010
• 6.120 Color saturation in flower petals
• 6.121 Yellow brilliance of aspen trees
• 6.122 Colors of eyes
• 6.123 So cold I turned blue
• 6.124 Speckle patterns
• 6.125 Colors in fluorescent light
• 6.126 Polarizing sunglasses   update Aug 2008
• 6.127 Sky polarization
• 6.128 Ant navigation     update Nov 2006
• 6.129 Colors and spots and polarization
• 6.130 Colorless foam and grounded powder
• 6.131 Glossy black felt, glossy varnish
• 6.132 Colors of green glass and green velvet
• 6.133 Peachy skin and apparent softness
• 6.134 Twinkies and Vaseline parties
• 6.135 The colors of meat
• 6.136 A short beer
• 6.137 "Whiter than white"
• 6.138 Disappearing coin
• 6.139 Sunglasses and smog
• 6.140 Brightness of the ocean
• 6.141 Blue ribbon on sea horizon
• 6.142 Darkness falls with a bang
• 6.143 Colorful contrail
• 6.144 Nacreous clouds
• 6.145 Twilight purple light
• 6.146 Ripples in the sky
• 6.147 Line across distant rain
• 6.148 Bright nights
• 6.149 Zodiacal light, gegenschein, and other nocturnal lights
• 6.150 Reflections on sea horizon
• 6.151 Using a solid metal ball to focus light   update Sep 2010
• 6.152 A fast spin in a curved mirror
• 6.153 Color of cigarette smoke
• 6.154 If you could see in the UV
• 6.155 Diffracted alphabet
• 6.156 A game of reflection     Click on new to get the following new items (not in the book)
• 6.157 Jack O'Lanterns   Oct 2006
• 6.158 White beetles    Mar 2007
• 6.159 Wet tee-shirt (T-shirt) and sunburn   Aug 2007
• 6.160 Glare off a printed page    Oct 2008
• 6.161 Gun sights and quark transformations  Apr 2010
• 6.162 Relativistic length contraction --- what does it look like?   July 2010
• 6.163 "Powers of Ten" --- the video    Nov 2010
• 6.164 Audience scanning Mar 2011 
• 6.165 Wooden mirrors   Dec 2012
• 6.166 Pub trick -- pouring water from nowhere   Mar 2015
• 6.167 Pinhole rifle sights, pinhole glasses, pinhole selfies    July 2015
• 6.168 Pub trick -- optically reversing arrows    Oct 2015
• 6.169 Black egg becomes glistening   Nov 2015