what makes a rainbow colorful?

Answer 1

different emmisions and greenhouse gasses

Answer 2

Visible light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is made up of light energy of various wavelengths which when viewed together appear as white (clear) light. Why the colors in a rainbow? For a rainbow to exhist it must be raining infront of the viewer and the Sun must be behind the viewer shining on the raindrops. The light from the Sun enters the upper nearside of the raindrop and is slightly refracted so that it contacts the rear inside of the raindrop where it is reflected back toward the lower near side where it is refracted again as it exits the raindrop and travels to the viewer. Each time light is refracted it slows down just a bit. Each color is of a slightly different wavelength and so each one bends at a slightly different angle thus seperating the light into different colors. The shorter the wavelength the greater the energy. Since violet is the shortest wavelength it is refracted the least and is at the bottom of the bow. Red is the longest wavelength and is refracted the most and appears at the top of the bow. The order from bottom to top is: violet, indigo,blue, green, yellow, orange and red. The height of the Sun will determine how much of a rainbow can be seen. If the Sun is right at the horizon then the rainbow will be about 180 degrees or half a circle. if the Sun is 45 degrees (When a shadow is the same length as the height of the object casting it) or higher, then no rainbow will be visible.

Answer 3

This might not help but really interneting info about rainbows.
Questions about Rainbows
People have been asking questions about rainbows since the beginning of time. One question frequently asked is, how far away is that rainbow? That is a tough one. How far away are the raindrops that produce it? It is hard to judge how far away a rain cloud is; especially if it's moving. The rainbow's distance extends from the nearest to the farthest raindrops that contribute any part of the colored light. The closest of these raindrops may be miles away. In the case of water spray from a lawn sprinkler in which a rainbow appears, you can reach right in and "touch it"....or so it seems. Many questions are unique to one's cultural history. Where is that pot of gold? That is a good question too.
The idea that a pot of gold can be found at the rainbow's end originated somewhere in old Europe. In Silesia, an obscure area of eastern Europe, it was said that the angels put the gold there and that only a nude man could obtain the prize. Hmm.....

Can you go under a rainbow's arch and come out the other side? Not according to the laws of physics. A rainbow is all light and water. It is always in front of you while your back is to the sun. However, there is an old European belief that anyone passing beneath the rainbow would be transformed, man into woman, woman into man! Hmm....
Well, that would be less painful than going to a surgeon.

Do two people ever see the same rainbow? No. As the eyes of two people cannot occupy the same place in space at the same time, each observer sees a different rainbow. Why? Well, because the raindrops are constantly in motion so its appearance is always changing. Each time you see a rainbow, it is unique in its own spectacular way! Many people consider rainbows to be an omen of some kind. It is an ancient desire rooted in our cultural mythologies.

The legends of many cultures see the rainbow as a kind of bridge between heaven and earth. One of the most beautiful sights in nature, the rainbow has become in western culture a symbol of renewed hope; something lucky to look upon. To Iranian Moslems, even the brilliance of the colors in a rainbow have significance. A prominent green means abundance, red means war, and yellow brings death. The Arawak Indians of South America recognize the rainbow as a fortunate sign if it seen over the ocean, while tribes in northeastern Siberia see it as the tongue of the sun. The North American Catawba Indians of the Southeast and the Tlingit of the Northwest both regard it as the bridge between the living and the dead.



What is a Rainbow or What Happens When Light, Water and Air meet?

When light and water meet in the sky on a summer's day, for a few moments, a rainbow will appear. Such a beautiful sight! This phenomena of the atmosphere appears during or immediately following local showers, when the sun is shining and the air contains raindrops. A rainbow can best be seen with polarized sunglasses. We cannot follow the arc of a rainbow down below the horizon, because we cannot see those droplets in the air below the horizon. But the higher we are above the ground, the more of the rainbow circle we would see. That is why, from an airplane in flight, a rainbow will appear as a complete circle with the shadow of the aitplane in the center.
The bow is divided into bands displaying the different colors of the spectrum and is formed by the refraction and reflection of the sun's rays in drops of rain. Reflection is simply the return of light waves from the raindrop's surface. Light which appears to be white, is really made up of a mixture of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet light.

When a shaft of sunlight enters a drop of water, a part of it does not pass directly through but is reflected from the inner surface and emerges from the side from which it entered. Moreover, it is refracted both on entering and leaving the water drop. This process, repeated in the same manner for an immense number of drops, produces the primary rainbow, which appears in front of the observer, who has his back to the sun. It has the red band on the outer edge which are long light waves and the blue-to-violet on the inner edge which are short light waves.

Another larger bow is often seem outside the primary rainbow and parallel to it. This secondary rainbow is produced in a similar way, but the sun's light is reflected twice before emerging from the raindrop. For this reason, the color sequence is reversed; red is on the inside edge. And because there is a loss of light with each reflection, it is not as bright as the primary rainbow. The region between the two bows is comparatively dark, for it lacks entirely both the once and the twice reflected rays. There is theoretical evidence for a tertiary rainbow , but it would be so faint as to be rarely seen in nature




What makes the colors in the rainbow?

The rainbow is made up of seven different colors; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The rainbow even contains colors that the eye can not see. These colors arise in the rainbow, because sunlight is made up of the whole range of colors that the eye can detect. The range of sunlight colors, when combined, looks white to the eye. Light of different colors is refracted by different amounts when it passes from one medium into another. For Example: when light hits glass it refracts

Answer 4

You do. If there was no one to view it and call it beautiful and colorful--how could you know it to be there? YOU are the most important part.

On a more serious note: All visual experiences happen thanks to light, especially a rainbow.

The droplets function as a lot of little lenses that break up the light into pure color.

A light misty rain on a sunny day and you might have a rainbow or two.

Answer 5

Three things must happen for you to see a rainbow's colors. First, the sun must be shining. Second, the sun must be behind you, and third, there must be water drops in the air in front of you. Sunlight shines into the water drops, which act as tiny prisms that bend or "refract" the light and separate it into colors.

Answer 6

the light rays that enter our atmosphere get bent and are thus affected. Like late in the day the sky is red because of our position in the sky and the light rays that show predominently are red waves of light. Or take a prism and shine a light into it. You can bend the light. Or with water you can make a rainbow. It all has to do with the light rays and what medium they pass through such as water, atmosphere, etc.

Answer 7

The refraction of sunlight, through water droplets, in the atmosphere, makes a rainbows colors, in this order ;
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Indigo
Violet

Just remember ROY - G - BIV

Answer 8

Water droplets diffract light and bend it to different wavelengths in relation to where your eyeball is. You better be in grade school coz that's when I learned about this junk.

Answer 9

the colors

Answer 10

Different wavelengths of sunlight reflecting off raindrops.