Hooked on Science: Glue stick sunset

Materials

• Full-size glue stick
• Flashlight

Instructions

• STEP 1: Hold the flashlight close to one end of the glue stick.
• STEP 2: Turn on the flashlight and observe. What happens to the light as it travels through the glue stick? Is the glue stick transparent, translucent or opaque?

Explanation

The light is scattered as it travels through the glue stick. The end of the glue stick closest to the light appears bluish-white. As the light travels through the glue stick, it appears more yellowish-orange. The same thing happens on earth. At sunset or sunrise, the light from the sun travels through a greater thickness of the atmosphere, which causes sunsets and sunrises to appear yellow, red and/or orange.