Can you explain why this happens?

Question

A few days ago i was in the car at about 4 in the morning and there was a bit of frost on the window when i looked at the parts that had forst, the street light had this kind of rainbow effect but when i looked though the parts of the window without the frost the light just looked normal. Can anyone explain how this happens?

thanks =]

Answer 1

it has to do with the spectrum of visible light, basically " clear" light to our eyes is actually many different colors that combine and are clear, but the ice crystals in the frost split apart the different colors making a rainbow, like how a prism makes a rainbow

Answer 2

The frost on the window acts like a prism and scatters the colors (just like the rainbow).