What is a rainbow?

Answer 1

a spectral obtained by interference of 7 colours

Answer 2

What is it with this question??? Oh well, here it goes. A rainbow is formed in many ways. You can get a rainbow by passing light through a prism of glass or crystal. As the pure white light passes through the prism it is diffused into the visible spectrum of light, as well as the invisible spectrums of light. A rainbow occures in nature when you are between the sun and a retreating body of rain. The sun must be at or around 45 degrees for you to see the diffusion of light. This is why many rainbows don't last long, either because the sun is setting, or because the body of rain has moved to far away. All this occures because the droplets of rain act just like miniture prisms, diffusing the light and sending it back to you in the visible spectrum of light. You can also see this occure if you spray a bit of water in the right angle from a source of light. Try it sometime, when you are watering your lawn move the water so that you are between it and the sun. With a little luck and a little trying you should see a rainbow.

Answer 3

rainbow, arc showing the colors of the spectrum, violet inside and red outside, which appears when the sun shines through water droplets. It often appears while the sun is shining after a brief thundershower in the late afternoon or on fog layers. The sun, the observer's eye, and the center of the arc must be aligned—the rainbow appears in the part of the sky opposite the sun. The rainbow is an arc of 180° if the sun is at the horizon, and it cannot appear if the sun is high in the sky. It is caused by the refraction and reflection of rays from the sun on a sheet of water droplets. The light is refracted as it enters the sphere of the individual water drop, then is reflected from the drop's opposite side, and is again refracted as it leaves the drop and passes to the observer's eye. When conditions are suitable, a double rainbow may be seen; a larger, paler, secondary rainbow with colors reversed (red inside) outside the primary arc is caused by two refractions and two reflections of the ray while it is inside a drop. The rainbows of mist, lawn spray, and spray from a waterfall are similarly caused. The lunary rainbow, seen much less often, is usually observable soon after dark following a brief summer storm or shower when the moon is nearly full. Aristotle was first to devote serious attention to the rainbow, but his mistaken explanation of it misled thinkers for centuries. Descartes in the 17th cent. also attempted to account for the phenomenon but the correct explanation of it could not be furnished until the physics of light and its reflection and refraction were understood and the spectrum explained. In religion and art the rainbow symbolizes God's promise of mercy to mankind after the Deluge (Gen. 9.13). The Greeks and Romans called the rainbow the sign of Iris, messenger of the gods. The Inca and other Native Americans regarded the rainbow as a gift from the sun-god. There are fairy tales of searches for the pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow.

See R. Greenler, Rainbows, Halos, and Glories (1990).

Answer 4

The light refracting through the rain drops. A rainbow is actually a complete circle, we can only see the top half of it.

It's also God's promise to never again flood the earth as he did in Noah's day.
Genesis 9:13.

Answer 5

I'm not a genius boot i have watched Mr. Wizard
a couple of times now. I do believe there a tiny colors in those rain drops which in fact ,when light is shined through them yes they make a beautiful color show called a rainbow. in lam eons term what dude said.

Answer 6

Rainbow is the result of scattering of white light light into the seven colours(VIBGYOR) when passes through water drops.

Answer 7

My guess is light bouncing off ice crystals in the atmosphere and bending along the curvature of the earth

Answer 8

White light broken up into it's component colours by rain drops illuminated by sunshine.

Answer 9

A logo used by the homosexual communities! And also Jesse Jackson!

Answer 10

Regular light bended into colors