I saw one this summer. I was astounded. It looked like an ordinary large rainbow...just upside-down. Has anyone else seen such a thing? (Sorry. I guess that's really a clarification of my main question.)
2006-10-07 23:54:53 · 8 answers · asked by timetampering 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Weather
No I don't think it can happen. Unless rain goes up...
2006-10-07 23:56:05 · answer #1 · answered by x_Super_Social_Superstar_x 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Although this is impossible, if you were in outer space surrounded by rain drops and sunshine, you would see a rainbow 360 degrees rainbow instead of an arc touching the ground on both ends. On earth, the earth usually gets in the way. Sunlight must enter spherical raindrops (large and small) and bend the light (like a prism) separating the colors for you to see. You must stand where the bent light is cast. A person a mile away may see the "same" rainbow but it will not be identical because they see it at a different angle relative to the raindrops and sun than you are. You have your own personal private view. Shooting a garden hose mist into the air can produce a 360 degree "rainbow" because you are close enough and can move to see it all. Therefore you can see an inverted rainbow if you are at the correct angle relative to the raindrops and sun and that could depend on the time of day and elevation of the sun (without clouds blocking the sunlight!).
2006-10-08 01:26:45 · answer #2 · answered by Kes 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Interesting question... could you see and upside down rainbow? Yes, if you were high enough and the rain reflecting the light sufficiently low. I can see it in a high rise building or on the edge of a cliff.
Now, seeing a full circle rainbow would be the same effect, and I would assume the rainbow you saw could have produced that as well.
All you have to remember is that you have to be either 48deg or 40deg from the rain to light source, the phenomenon does not specify you relative orientation, so it is possible.
2006-10-09 14:19:50 · answer #3 · answered by jbgot2bfree 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've only ever seen reversed rainbows as part of a double rainbow. I felt privileged to see that. But we do get them sometimes here in central California.
I'd be interested to know if a reversed color rainbow is possible in the absence of the conditions for a double rainbow, or whether the "primary" is simply not visible for some reason, and you are seeing only the secondary of the double. I'm not clear enough on the physics that creates the doubling effect.
2006-10-08 00:04:34 · answer #4 · answered by auntb93again 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, we cannot see rainbow upside down. However,
If you were up above the rain, you would see the rainbow as a full circle, because the light would bounce back from all around you. On the ground, we see the arc of the rainbow that is visible above the horizon.
2006-10-08 00:02:13 · answer #5 · answered by cosmoboyin 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hey this is not possible as the rainbow is formed due to a prism effect. in a prism the curve is designed in a manner to show light only in the normal way and not in the up side down way
2006-10-08 00:03:19 · answer #6 · answered by Nitin Jain 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
confident. A sundog is an entire rainbow around the solar. If the desirable a million/2 will become obscured (sundogs, like rainbows, frequently seem in mist) then you definately get an the different way up rainbow. it is purely a refraction of sunshine for the time of the ambience afterall.
2016-11-27 00:28:18 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes it has happend sometime back in India
2006-10-10 04:46:59 · answer #8 · answered by Manpreet 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋