Chromatic CitySadie JewellAward: Top 100
School: glenbard west high school This photo depicts the "Crosland Chroma" art installation at Georgia Tech featuring polycarbonate fins covered in dichroic film. Dichroic film operates through using thin-film interference to reflect or transmit different colors of light based on their wavelengths. Since dichroic film is made up of layers of thin materials with different refractive indices, when light passes through the film, some light waves reflect off the top surface of the film, while others off the bottom. If the extra distance the light wave reflected off of the bottom surface equals one or more wavelengths in the film, the two waves reflected will reach the eye at the same time and interfere constructively which causes the surface of the film to be even more bright, a fact seen by the vivid colors of the art piece. Constructive interference only augments certain wavelengths of lights (and therefore colors of light), this all depends on the thin film, angle the light is reflected at, and film thickness. Within the image, the violet light is reflected at the top of the structure and red light at the bottom. Out of all visible colors of light, violet has the shortest wavelength while red light has the largest. Therefore, given the angle the picture was taken at, constructive interference favors larger wavelengths of light near the bottom of the structure and shorter wavelengths near the top. This creates a rainbow of colors, showcasing the very beginning to end of the visible spectrum of light. 
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