Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 70 views

    Rainbows Are A Strange Phenomenon

    Uploaded by

    Rhya ShanTi
    Rainbows occur when sunlight passes through water droplets and refracts at a specific angle, around 20-30 degrees from the direction it entered. This causes the different wavelengths of light to separate into the visible color spectrum. A rainbow appears as a circle in the sky with the observer's back to the sun because each water droplet acts as a prism, reflecting light along the path from the sun to the observer's eyes. Since rainbows are an optical effect rather than a physical object, they appear to follow the observer as they move and can never be reached.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Rainbows Are A Strange Phenomenon

    Uploaded by

    Rhya ShanTi
    70 views2 pages
    Rainbows occur when sunlight passes through water droplets and refracts at a specific angle, around 20-30 degrees from the direction it entered. This causes the different wavelengths of light to separate into the visible color spectrum. A rainbow appears as a circle in the sky with the observer's back to the sun because each water droplet acts as a prism, reflecting light along the path from the sun to the observer's eyes. Since rainbows are an optical effect rather than a physical object, they appear to follow the observer as they move and can never be reached.

    Original Title

    Rainbows Are a Strange Phenomenon

    Copyright

    © Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Rainbows occur when sunlight passes through water droplets and refracts at a specific angle, around 20-30 degrees from the direction it entered. This causes the different wavelengths of light to separate into the visible color spectrum. A rainbow appears as a circle in the sky with the observer's back to the sun because each water droplet acts as a prism, reflecting light along the path from the sun to the observer's eyes. Since rainbows are an optical effect rather than a physical object, they appear to follow the observer as they move and can never be reached.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    70 views2 pages

    Rainbows Are A Strange Phenomenon

    Uploaded by

    Rhya ShanTi
    Rainbows occur when sunlight passes through water droplets and refracts at a specific angle, around 20-30 degrees from the direction it entered. This causes the different wavelengths of light to separate into the visible color spectrum. A rainbow appears as a circle in the sky with the observer's back to the sun because each water droplet acts as a prism, reflecting light along the path from the sun to the observer's eyes. Since rainbows are an optical effect rather than a physical object, they appear to follow the observer as they move and can never be reached.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 2

    Rainbows are a strange phenomenon, and one of the least well-understood laws of nature, as far as most people are

    concerned. Theyre rings of light, often times you can see them in the sky, or in waterfalls, or even in a garden sprinkler on a really nice day. Somehow, we cant see the end of them, and no matter where we go, they always look like theyre in the same place. Everyone knows that rainbows occur when light passes through small droplets of water and bounces around, but the following article will explain exactly why rainbows appear as they do.

    When light passes through a water droplet, the curvature of the surface combined with the density of the water in comparison with that of the air causes light to refract, as in a prism. Since different wavelengths of light shift by different angles inside the water, we get the usual prism effect of light being split in to various bands of colour. If this is true, then wed expect that every droplet of water that was hit by sunlight would create the rainbow effect, and this is actually true. For every droplet of water thats hit by the suns rays, there is a particular angle at which the droplet can be viewed which would show the appropriate patters of light, though interference from dust, other water, etc. makes viewing a rainbow impossible without a large amount of small droplets, which are closer in shape to spheres than large droplets. Now, well put ourselves in the position of anyone looking at the droplet of water. If we trace the line the light took to get from the sun to us, its apparent that depending on where were standing, each photon was shifted by a specific angle, and that this angle actually determines what colour the light comes out as, because changing our angle a little bit makes some colours miss our eyes, while another colour comes in to focus. The first thing to consider is that we can forget about light that doesnt come from the sun, or light that bounced around too many times before it hit the water droplets. This light is less powerful, and less directional, and is simply destined to become some of the background light that makes up our blue sky. Now, if we take a look at the shape of a sphere, we can use some mathematics far beyond the scope of this article to calculate that the light that gets refracted inside the water droplet comes out at an angle of about 20 to 30 degrees away from the direction it entered, as shown in the diagram below:

    Since the light is going backwards, we need to stand with our back facing the sun in order to view a rainbow. Now, if we perform the calculations required, we can see that the line passing through both the sun and the viewer forms the direction of the cone of space in which water droplets will be able to reflect light back to us. To be a little more clear, if you stand with your back to the sun and look at a rainbow (as a circle), you can draw a cone from yourself to the rainbow, and if you were to look around, you would notice that the cone is directly aligned with your direction to the sun. This explains why rainbows move as you move, why you can never find the end of a rainbow (its a circle that keeps moving as you do) and why sometimes, in sun showers, you can see the continuation of rainbows even in front of objects that are quite close to you. If you ever drive in a misty rain and see a rainbow, you may notice that it may even be visible in front of cars in other lanes than yours. In conclusion, a rainbow is almost an entirely mathematical event. Its based solely on the position of the sun relative to the observer, and as such, has no physical location to speak of. This strange phenomenon comes from the diffraction of light through water, and is one of the most impressive and awe-inspiring sights in nature, due to its complexity, and lack of a noncomplex explanation.

    You might also like