The Physics of Diamonds

Last Friday was the Junior Ring Ceremony and looking at my ring, I was instantly reminded of the concepts we just learned these past few weeks. When I was young, I used to wonder why diamonds sparkle and make little rainbows when tilted at a certain way under the sun or some kind of light source and now, I can finally answer that question!

When light enters a diamond from all sides, ligh is refracted. However, because visible light is actually an amalgamation of all the rainbow colors, all the different colors bends and reflects differently from the others. Because a diamond's index of refraction is high, the different rainbow color bend enough to break apart the white light that entered the diamond. When it enters the object, the light may bounce back and forth before it finds a path out of the diamond. As all the different rainbow colors change direction (boucing from surface to surface in the diamond), it creates a sparkly effect. The more the light travels, the more the light tend to disperse into separate colors. This is why a diamond's cut is imperative in contributing to its sparkly attention-grabbing effect. Because of its different facets, the light must move around until it finds a straight shot out of the object.