DIY How to Make Rainbows at Home?

In this instructables I'm going to show you " How can you make rainbow @ home "

1. a flashlight or a sunny day
2. a mirror (at least 5″ by 5″)
3. a pan of water
4. a CD
5. a prism
6. some white paper
7. a small cue card
8. a tall, clear straight-sided glass of water

Let’s start with the easiest! Fill a large bowl or dish halfway with water and prop up a mirror inside it so that part of the mirror is under the water and part is out.

Place the rainbow maker near a sunny window with direct light coming in so that it hits the mirror (early morning or early evening light works best). Play around with holding a large white piece of paper above the maker to “catch” the rainbow. You might have to move a bit until you find it. Play around with moving the paper closer to the mirror and then farther away to see how your rainbow changes!

SAFETY NOTE: Just like you should never look directly into the sun, be sure that youdo not look directly into the reflection from the mirror. It can damage your eyes. If you are at all concerned about this with your child, instead of using sunlight, try a darkened room with a strong lightsource instead.

When light goes through a glass of water – it also splits into a rainbow.

To get ready – take a piece of paper and cut a slot into the middle of it. Tape this onto the side of a smooth/clear drinking glass so that the sun’s rays can pass through the opening onto the SURFACE of the water in the glass.

You will need to do this on a very sunny day (or try a darkened room with a strong direct light source.)

Make sure that the glass of water is VERY FULL. Place the glass on a white floor or white piece of paper, making sure the sun’s rays are shining through the slot in your paper and hitting the surface of the water.

You should see a mini-rainbow appear below the glass!

If you’re lucky enough to have a crystal chandelier at home, or a hanging crystal decoration, you may not need to buy a prism. We didn’t – so I picked one up at our local kids’ toy shop.

Basically, all I did was place a large piece of white paper on the floor beside our living room window that lets in lots of direct sunlight in the morning.

Onetime figured out pretty quickly that by moving it around, he could make a rainbow beam appear on the paper. He had lots of fun moving the prism in different ways and exploring how to change the size of the rainbow.

If you happen to have 2 of the standard prisms, you can have the light pass through one prism (which then breaks into a rainbow) and enter the other prism – which then bends it back into white light.

You can make this really simple and just hold a CD up to some sunlight – or shine a flashlight on one in a darkened room – and you will see a rainbow on the CD.

Or go a little further, and try to catch the reflection of the light on some paper!

The reason why a rainbow appears is because there are tiny ridges in the surface of the CD that are reflecting the light in different directions. To read more about the science behind CD rainbows – check out this post at Exploratorium.

Other ways we didn’t try: misting a hose on a sunny day with the sun behind you, looking for rainbows in bubbles and oil slicks, wearing rainbow glasses