rainbows

I know I am late for this post since this topic was ages, ago, so I was thinking why not a recap! It won't hurt, would it?

Rainbows are one of the most spectacular light shows observed on earth. Indeed the traditional rainbow is sunlight spread out into its spectrum of colors and diverted to the eye of the observer by water droplets.


Most people have never noticed that the sun is always behind you when you face a rainbow. I understand it is funny but it is true.


The traditional description of the rainbow is that it is made up of seven colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Actually, the rainbow is a whole continuum of colors from red to violet and even beyond the colors that the eye can see. Thank God we only have to learn the 7 colours. :D

The colors of the rainbow arise from two basic facts:

Sunlight is made up of the whole range of colors that the eye can detect. The range of sunlight colors, when combined, looks white to the eye. This property of sunlight was first demonstrated by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666.

Light of different colors is refracted by different amounts when it passes from one medium (air, for example) into another (water or glass, for example).

There are certain times when you actually see 2 rainbows. Magnificent huh?


However, not all of the energy of the ray escapes the raindrop after it is reflected once. A part of the ray is reflected again and travels along inside the drop to emerge from the drop. The rainbow we normally see is called the primary rainbow; the second rainbow is called the secondary rainbow.

Another interesting fact!

Rainbows are usually present during full moon, at night of course, called the lunar rainbow!

A full moon is bright enough to have its light refracted by raindrops just as is the case for the sun. Moonlight is much fainter, of course, so the lunar rainbow is not nearly as bright as one produced by sunlight.

More about rainbows - click here!