A rainbow is an optical phenomenon that can occur under certain meteorological conditions. It is caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc.
The rainbow is circular because when a raindrop bends light, the light exits the raindrop at an angle 40 to 42 degrees away from the angle it entered the raindrop and regarding full circular rainbow, But if the sun is very low in the sky, either just before sunset or just after sunrise, we can see a half circle.
A rainbow is caused by the reflection, refraction and dispersion of light by droplets of water in the sky. Specifically, they occur when light is refracted when entering droplets, reflected on the back of the inside of droplets and then refracted again when exiting the droplet.
The rainbow is one of the most common natural phenomena we can see, but we are still surprised by this ephemeral meteorological phenomenon.
A rainbow is an optical illusion—it does not actually exist in a specific spot in the sky. The appearance of a rainbow depends on where you're standing and where the sun (or other source of light) is shining. The sun or other source of light is usually behind the person seeing the rainbow.
Rainbow is formed just because of dispersion of white light due to raindrops. Technically different colours are light waves of different wavelengths. Since we can not touch light, so we can not even touch a rainbow.
A rainbow is caused by sunlight and atmospheric conditions. Light enters a water droplet, slowing down and bending as it goes from air to denser water. The light reflects off the inside of the droplet, separating into its component wavelengths--or colors.
Rainbows are formed when sunlight is scattered from raindrops into the eyes of an observer. Most raindrops are spherical rather than the often depicted 'teardrop' shape and it is this spherical shape that provides the conditions for a rainbow to be seen.
One of the rarest forms is multiple, or double, rainbows. They occur when several rainbows form in the same place at the same time. It takes at least one primary rainbow to generate this sight, as well as several other secondary rainbows.
What you might not realize is that the shape of a rainbow isn't a “bow” or an “arc” at all, but rather a full circle. The only reason you see part of that full circle, under most conditions, is because the Earth itself (or other foreground features) are in the way, preventing you from seeing the entire rainbow at once.
Rainbows with a red or pink hue are ordinary rainbows that happen to occur when the sun is low in the sky and appear redder than when it is higher up. As for the absence of rain, it may not have been raining at the place where this photograph was taken, but the picture shows some clouds in the sky.
Well, you can't. Before we look at the myth, we need to understand how rainbows actually form. As a rainbow is simply a form of optical illusion, as you move around where light is reflected by the rain the view also changes.
Rainbows never actually touch the ground! They look like they do due to a prism-ing effect but if you go high enough, in a plane or on a mountaintop, and look down on a rainbow; it will be completely circular!
The average rainbow lasts for less than an hour. 1. A primary rainbow is formed when light shines through water droplets. It happens most often when the sun shines through the rain.
12 Answers
The letter "W". That's an easy one. have you ever noticed that a W upside down looks like a double rainbow?
Because the light hits the rain at an angle, the light starts to curve. Beams of light can bounce any which way, up, down, or sideways. But the only beams you see are thebeams that lie on a cone shape, with the angle being between 40 and 42 degrees with your eyes being the tip of that cone.
The effect is only created at some distance. A rainbow that you see from the ground may appear to be in a particular place in the sky. An airplane could fly through that space and it might appear to you that it is passing through it The occupants of the airplane, however, would not see a rainbow there.
Rainbows are rare — so make your own
If you live in an area that rarely gets rainfall, you may not see a rainbow very often. You can still experience rainbows because anyone can make their own.
Why can't we touch a star? The Moon is our closest celestial neighbor at nearly a quarter million miles from Earth, and the nearest star, our Sun, is 93 million miles away. These extreme distances mean that it's usually impossible to touch real objects in space (meteorites that fall to the ground not withstanding).