rainbow

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.

How a rainbow is formed???

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 everwitness exactly the same rainbowbecause each will view adifferent set of drops at aslightly different angle. Also,each color seen is from different raindrops.

Rainbows can be full circles,However the average observersees only an arc,formed byilluminated droplets above theground.

How can we see a rainbow???

• 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.

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