2006-07-04 08:00:17 · 8 answers · asked by tony soprano 1 in Social Science ➔ Other - Social Science
Prism effect of the light through the moisture in the air
2006-07-04 12:13:38 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
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.
Actually, the rays of light bend twice. As they enter the drops, the rays of light bend, then reflect off the back of the drops. Then they bend again, this time while exiting the drops. That's when the light appears before our eyes.
Each drop reflects only one color of light, so there must be many water drops to make a full rainbow. You'll see the brightest rainbows when the water drops are large, usually right after a rain shower.
The rainbow is circular because when a raindrop bends light, the light exits the raindrop at an angle 40 to 42 degrees away from the angle it entered the raindrop.
The violets and blues bend at a 40-degree angle, and the oranges and reds bend at a 42-degree angle. As a result, the only beams of light you see are from raindrops that are 40 to 42 degrees away from the shadow of your head. This gives the rainbow its curved appearance.
2006-07-04 15:05:27 · answer #2 · answered by pammy6446 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
refraction - when light passes thru a crystal or raindrops, it is split, that is, the different wavelengths are separated into groups (because of the different lengths, they leave the crystal at different places). We then can see the colors that are contained in white light.
No two persons can see the same rainbow! because each person views the phenomenom from a slightly different angle, thus thru a different set of raindrops.
2006-07-04 15:29:26 · answer #3 · answered by bjoybead 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Natural light appears "white" to our eyes, however, that is because it is made up of all colors. When light is bent through a prism or through water, the white light is split up into all of its component colors, allowing you to see a rainbow. Beautiful!
2006-07-04 15:03:56 · answer #4 · answered by Swallowtail 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a nearly continuous spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the
Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere."
2006-07-04 15:02:27 · answer #5 · answered by chocolatemilk 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The rainbow's colours are the colours that, mixed together, create the white light.
2006-07-04 15:04:35 · answer #6 · answered by Sunshine 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Moisture in the air.
2006-07-04 15:04:16 · answer #7 · answered by Axewielderx 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the prizm effect.
2006-07-04 15:10:35 · answer #8 · answered by c@k 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋