Why Does Glass Look Different in Oil vs Water?

In the below gif, a stick begins by standing straight up in a glass before it’s leaned to the side. You’re looking through three different materials: at the top you’re looking through glass, in the middle is a layer of oil inside of the glass, and the bottom layer is water inside of the glass.
NGSS Phenomena: A beaker mostly full of water on the bottom, with oil in the middle, and air on the top. In the middle of the beaker, a yellow tube starts out standing up straight. The yellow tube is leaned to the side and the tube appears to break into different parts, with the pieces in the oil moving to the side faster than the water, and the pieces we see through the water moving to the side faster than the parts we see through the air.

1. This phenomena is an example of the of waves.

Drag the answers below into the grey placeholders above

refraction
reflection
amplitude
light
sound
absorption
matter

2. Light waves require a material to move through and sound waves .

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do not
do

3. Do light waves travel in straight lines? If so, what does this gif show about each of these materials?

4. In the space below, draw arrows to show the different ways that you might expect a light wave to move through each substance.

Color

Width

5. Explain in words how your model shows the way light will react differently as it passes through each material.

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This matching question aligns to the following standards

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  • PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation

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