2. What is rainbow???
• One of nature's most splendid masterpieces is the
rainbow. A rainbow is an excellent demonstration of
the dispersion of light and one more piece of evidence
that visible light is composed of a spectrum of
wavelengths, each associated with a distinct color.
• A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon
that is caused by both reflection and refraction of
light in water droplets resulting in
a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the
form of a multicoloured arc. Rainbows caused
by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly
opposite the sun.
4. As light enters a water droplet, the different wavelength
colors bend at slightly separate angles. Some of this
light reflects off the back of the droplet and is bent a
second time as the droplet emerges from the light beam.
Drops at different angles send distinctively different
colors to the eye.
If light is hitting raindrops at a proper angle, a
secondary, larger rainbow will appear outside of the main
rainbow. This secondary rainbow is fainter in color than
the main one because the light has been reflected twice
by each raindrop. This double reflection also reverses
the colors in the secondary rainbow.
To see a rainbow, an observer must have her back to the
sun and rain must be falling in some part of the sky.
Since each raindrop is lit by the white light of the sun,
a spectrum of colors is produced.
No two observers will ever
witness exactly the same rainbow
because each will view a
different set of drops at a
slightly different angle. Also,
each color seen is from different raindrops.
5. Rainbows can be full circles,
However the average observer
sees only an arc,formed by
illuminated droplets above the
ground.
7. • Rainbows appear when raindrops (similar to a prism) reflect sunlight,
thus breaking white sunlight into colors.
• To view a rainbow, your back must be to the
sun as you look at an approximately 42 degree
angle above the ground into a region of the
atmosphere with suspended droplets of water or
even a light mist. Each individual droplet of water
acts as a tiny prism that both disperses the light and
reflects it back to your eye. As you sight into the sky,
wavelengths of light associated with a specific color arrive at your eye from
the collection of droplets.