Question

when you look at the back of a CD or dvd you see a rainbow pattern....

when you look at the back of a CD or dvd you see a rainbow pattern. where does this pattern come from? when you twist and turn the cd the pattern shifts. why?

Homework Answers

Answer #1

Cause of the rainbow patterns: When the light hit the surface of the CD/DVD most of it passes through it, but some of the light is reflected back, the light rays reflected off the top and the bottom surfaces meet and cause constructive and destructive interference and form patterns.

When we twist and turn the cd the angle of incidence changes and the path difference of the light rays changes which subsequently changes their phase difference and due to that change the pattern shifts. Since the angle that the CD is held at controls the colors we see. Angle changes > path difference changes > pattern shifts.

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