2006-06-16 20:23:30 · 4 answers · asked by tk 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Homework Help
REFRACTION IS THE PHENOMENA
When light travels from one medium to another, it bends. In other words, it changes direction and moves at different speeds in different mediums. This property of light is called “refraction”.
We also know that white light is made up of different colours. Different colors of light have different frequencies. Except in vacuum and air, they travel at different speeds in different mediums.
If you were to allow a beam of light to pass through a simple prism, it will bend when it enters the prism, when it leaves the prism it bends again. The different colours of the white light travel with different speeds inside the prism. The slanted surfaces of the prism makes the different colours emerge separately, thus in addition to bending light as a whole, a prism separates white light into its component colors. This splitting of light into its component colours is called dispersion, where prism is a dispersing element.
This is exactly what happens when the sun rays hit droplets of water. When the sunlight strikes a raindrop, the light is refracted (bent) because the light is moving from one medium(air) to another( water). Drops of rainwater can disperse light in the same way as a prism.. When the light comes out of the water droplet, the sun's rays (white light)have now been split into their component wavelengths (colors). In this way, each individual raindrop behaves just like a prism, dispersing white sunlight into its seven component colors and a rainbow is formed.
The rainbow we see is thus a result of many, many raindrops bending the sun's rays.
2006-06-16 20:41:13 · answer #1 · answered by halleberry_aus 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The rainbow effect is caused by a prism. Don't know who discovered the source, but the Bible says Noah and his family were the first to see a rainbow.
2006-06-16 20:28:58 · answer #2 · answered by scavenger_meat 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The formation of a rainbow includes a series of exact phenomena - mirrored image, refraction, dispersion and finished inner mirrored image. The occurence of each of those is via the interaction of sunshine with air and water and the obstacles between them.
2016-11-14 21:34:40 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wasn't it a symbol of God's promise to Noah that he would never again flood the Earth for 40 days and nights again?
2006-06-16 20:28:19 · answer #4 · answered by fixer of all aka mom 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋