Physical Light, Liquid Light, Chemical Light, Natural sunlight, Lightbulbs….what do all these have in common? They’re all discussed and needed in the Liquid Light Rainbow Science Experiment. It’s a great experiment to do with kids of all ages and explores many science principles. It shows the differences of physical color, chemical color and light. Basically it will show that when you mix physical colors together, i.e. paint, what you will eventually get if you keep mixing is a muddy brown/black color. When you mix light however, the opposite happens, it doesn’t turn black but instead you get white light! Mixing chemicals can go both ways. You can mix chemicals to get a black color as in the Incredible Iodine Clock Reaction Kit  and change it back to clear as in the Fascinating Oscillating Clock Reaction Kit. You can create every color in the rainbow as in the Multi-Color Red Cabbage Indicator. The steps to do the Liquid Light Color Demonstration is listed below:

1) Start off with a clear piece of glass and the 3 primary colors of paint on the glass (Blue, Red, Yellow). Mix all 3 colors on the glass and show that it beomes dark and black.

2) Take 3 chemical light-sticks (crack-in-half glow sticks) activate them and carefully, while wearing plastic gloves, cut open the tops and pour them into 3 separate cups. You now have 3 glowing cups of colored light. Now pour all the colors into one cup. You will have a slightly reddish hue to the light. Explain that the light is really white but the red tint is due to the dye in the red glow stick. To prove that this light is white, dip a paper towel in the glowing cup of liquid, shut the lights, and show everyone that the paper towel is now glowing white! All the colors mixed to create white light!

3) Prove that white light such as sunlight, bulbs, are really a mix of every color in the rainbow by taking the 3-D Rainbow Fireworks Glasses and looking at a light. (Do not look directly at the sun) Now you’ll see how the light is split up  into every color of the rainbow giving proof that regular light is a mixture of every color. You can also see this by using the awesome White Rainbow Lightning Stick.