Are rainbows real?

Question

Cuz like i had never seen one.

Answer 1

Yes.

Answer 2

What is a rainbow?
Author Donald Ahrens in his text Meteorology Today describes a rainbow as "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. The "bow" part of the word describes the fact that the rainbow is a group of nearly circular arcs of color all having a common center.
Where is the sun when you see a rainbow?
This is a good question to start thinking about the physical process that gives rise to a rainbow. Most people have never noticed that the sun is always behind you when you face a rainbow, and that the center of the circular arc of the rainbow is in the direction opposite to that of the sun. The rain, of course, is in the direction of the rainbow.
What makes the bow?
A question like this calls for a proper physical answer. We will discuss the formation of a rainbow by raindrops. It is a problem in optics that was first clearly discussed by Rene Descartes in 1637. An interesting historical account of this is to be found in Carl Boyer's book, The Rainbow From Myth to Mathematics. Descartes simplified the study of the rainbow by reducing it to a study of one water droplet and how it interacts with light falling upon it.
He writes:"Considering that this bow appears not only in the sky, but also in the air near us, whenever there are drops of water illuminated by the sun, as we can see in certain fountains, I readily decided that it arose only from the way in which the rays of light act on these drops and pass from them to our eyes. Further, knowing that the drops are round, as has been formerly proved, and seeing that whether they are larger or smaller, the appearance of the bow is not changed in any way, I had the idea of making a very large one, so that I could examine it better.

Answer 3

Sure they are, and to prove it, you can make one yourself!

On a day when the sun is brilliantly high in the sky, from about noon until 2ish, go outside and have a friend hold the hose eye height and have them make the water spray at a right angle to the sun. The spray needs to be very fine. You will see the water cause a refraction of the light and prism it to show you the colors. I have seen a rainbow that was tripled, and on a really good day, 17 in one sky at the same time!

Enjoy the science lesson!

Answer 4

Yes. Rainbows are white (multi-wavelength) light split up by the water bending different wavelengths of light. Each color bends a bit differently.

If you want to see one, walk around a fine spray from a hose or fountain. When the light is at the right angle, there will be a rainbow. The link I've given explains it with some good diagrams.

Answer 5

A rainbow (also known as a rainboner) is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a nearly continuous spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the sun shines onto falling rain. It is a multicoloured arc with red on the outside and violet on the inside. The full sequence of colours is red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue and violet. Many of us, including me, have seen numerous rainbows. Ofcourse they are for real.

Answer 6

Yes. When the sun is high and there is mist in the air, it refracts the light into a complete spectrum of the visible color wavelengths. But no, it is physically impossible to get to the end of a rainbow, because technically, if the circumstances were right, it would circle the whole Earth.

Answer 7

You've NEVER seen a rainbow??? Yes, of course their real.

Did you know that the rainbow was made by God to serve as a reminder of his promise to never flood the earth again??

Answer 8

Yes, rainbows are real. They are an arc of light in the sky caused by the refraction of the sun's rays by rain.

Answer 9

Not really.

It's just light reflecting around in water in the air at a 42 digree angle.

If you have a waterhose that has a mist stetting you can see a rainbow by spraing it arond up into the air on a sunny day...

Answer 10

yes but you won't find a pot of gold or leprechans at the end of it. they are cause by the sun shining a certain way through drops of water in the air. a good way to make your own is to get a water hose that has a flow control nozzle and set it on mist. just look at the finer mist coming from it and you should be able to see a smell rainbow :)

Answer 11

Take your hose and set the nozzle on fine mist hold it up so the sun shines thru it and you will make your own rainbow