why do we get rainbows and how are they made?

Answer 1

A Rainbow is made my the Irish Lepracons, to show where they hid their gold, which is at the end of the rainbow.
Ive tried to find the gold, but the rainbow always dissappears just before i get to the end of it. never mind, i will keep trying

Answer 2

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. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc, with red on the outside and violet on the inside. A double rainbow includes a second, fainter, arc with colors in the opposite order.

Even though a rainbow spans a continuous spectrum of colours, traditionally the full sequence of colours is most commonly cited as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. It is commonly thought that indigo was included due to the different religious connotations of the numbers six and seven at the time of Isaac Newton's work on light, despite its lack of scientific significance and the poor ability of humans to distinguish colours in the blue portion of the visual spectrum.

The rainbow's appearance is caused by dispersion of sunlight as it is refracted by (approximately spherical) raindrops. The light is first refracted as it enters the surface of the raindrop, reflected off the back of the drop, and again refracted as it leaves the drop. The overall effect is that the incoming light is reflected back over a wide range of angles, with the most intense light at an angle of about 40°–42°. This angle is independent of the size of the drop, but does depend on its refractive index. As seawater has a higher refractive index than rain water, the radius of a 'rain'bow in a sea spray is smaller than a true rainbow. This is visible to the naked eye by a misalignment of these bows.

Since the water is dispersive, the amount that the sunlight is bent depends upon the wavelength, and hence colour, of the light's constituent parts. Blue light is refracted at a greater angle than red light, but because the area of the back of the droplet has a focal point inside the droplet, the spectrum crosses itself, and therefore the red light appears higher in the sky, and forms the outer colour of the rainbow. Contrary to popular belief, the light at the back of the raindrop does not undergo total internal reflection; however, light that emerges from the back of the raindrop does not create a rainbow between the observer and the Sun. The spectra emitted from the back of the raindrop do not have a maximum of intensity, as the other visible rainbows do, and thus the colours blend together and do not form a rainbow.

A rainbow does not actually exist at a location in the sky, but rather is an optical phenomenon whose apparent position depends on the observer's location. All raindrops refract and reflect the sunlight in the same way, but only the light from some raindrops reaches the observer's eye. These raindrops are perceived to constitute the rainbow by that observer. The position of a rainbow in the sky is always in the opposite direction of the Sun with respect to the observer, and the interior is always slightly brighter than the exterior. The bow is centred on the shadow of the observer's head, or more exactly at the antisolar point (which is below the horizon during the daytime), appearing at an angle of approximately 40°–42° to the line between the observer's head and its shadow. As a result, if the Sun is higher than 42°, then the rainbow is below the horizon and cannot be seen as there are usually not enough raindrops between the horizon (that is: eye height) and the ground, to contribute. One exception is when the observer is at the top of a mountain or a similar vantage point, for example an aeroplane (see below). Another exception occurs when the rainbow is produced by a garden sprinkler. Although in this case to get sufficient drops they must be very small, resulting in a quite colourless bow.
A portion of a 360 degree rainbow, seen from an airplane.
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A portion of a 360 degree rainbow, seen from an airplane.

Answer 3

Although white light can be split into its fundamental colors by refraction (going though something), in the case of rainbows, the split is through reflection off the raindrops. This can be easily verified by noting where the sun is in relation to the rainbow. Is it behind or in front of the rainbow? I submit, the sun will be in front (behind your back) and, therefore, the light is reflected, not refracted.

ROYGBIV is a mnemonic for remembering the fundamental colors that make up white light: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. The length of the waves decreases from red through violet. Inversely, the frequency of the waves increases from red through violet.

Waves, both sound and light, are made up of multiple waves that add or subtract from each other. In sound, we call these added wave frequencies harmonics. One of the interesting aspects of these harmonics is that they are discrete, not continuous. That is, they are multiples of a whole number like n = 1, 2, 3 etc. A similar thing occurs in light. Its "harmonics" (ROYGBIV) occur at discrete levels as well.

Answer 4

well rainbows are made by light from the sun that hits the raindrops and then reflects the light back to your eyes. because of the shape of the raindrop it in lame mans terms splits the light into each colour of the rainbow but all of this will only happen if you are facing away from the sun otherwise no rainbow

Answer 5

Rainbows are formed after a rainstorm. The moisutire in the air reflects the white light of the sun itno the colors of the rainbow, very similar to a prism.

Answer 6

rainbows are caused by the sun's rays shining through raindrops. The water refracts, reflects the suns's rays, breaking them down into the colours we see. White is actually a combination of all the colours of the rainbow, reflected through water droplets or crystals which you hang in your window, it is broken down into its separate colours and we can see them. The sun has to be shining and it has to be raining somewhere at the same time for a rainbow to form.
I once had the extreme privilege of seeing a double rainbow over the Solent, from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight.

Answer 7

Why
We get rainbows because sunlight is composed of light of many colours, and because the speed of light in water is different for the different colours.

How
Need 3 things
1 Water drops in the air - rain

2 Sunlight on this water/rain

3 You need to be in a position to see that water/rain, and it has to be on an arc about 40 degrees around the shadow of your head

The rainbow is casued by rays of light that are scattered and refracted by the raindrops. Details in the reference.

Answer 8

The rainbows are formed by the sun shining through raindrops as they fall. The raindrops act as a type of prism that splits the light into different colours.

Answer 9

rainbow is formed as a reflection of the son and the rain.it is also a sign given by God that he will not destroy the world with water again.if u observe u can see that after there is a rainbow there is no rain

Answer 10

Rainbows are made from sunlight and water droplets. When sunlight shines on water droplets it creates prisms of color. It's simple physics. anyone should know This it's 5th grade stuff.