what determines the size,brightness and positioning of rainbows. I'm in the Highlands of Scotland looking?

Question

I am in the highlands of Scotland in the village of Lumsden looking out the window right now, at two rainbows. One is very very bright and one is around 45 meters away from the other but much duller. Also I can see the base of the rainbow here, but if I went to that location - would it move position?

Answer 1

Wow, not enough information to calculate. We would need the following information:

Your position in latitude and longitude
Time of day to the minute
The position of the clouds that are raining

Then, let's state a few facts...

1) Rainbows do not have a position, they are an optical illusion. The refraction/reflection can be inches away or thousands of feet. You would not necessarily know the distance by looking.

2) You can only see a rainbow when the light source is behind you.

3) There is no base of a rainbow because they do not exist, remember they are an optical illusion. You can see where the rainbow appears to be cut off by the ground, but there is no base. In fact if you were in the right position you could see a full circle rainbow.

4) There is no location to move on a rainbow, but if you did move, yes it would look like the rainbow moved too. In fact there is no way to could be in a rainbow. HOWEVER, that does not mean a friend could not move to a position and appear to be in the rainbow, however your friend would not see the rainbow.

5) Seeing dual rainbows (one at 42 degrees and the next at 50 degrees) is not uncommon. Seeing a triple or quadruple is much more unusual.

SO there you go, so rainbow facts.

Answer 2

In addition to Gleemonex's answer, the 2 rainbows your saw are called primary and secondary bows.

The primary bow is the same one you see, if you see a single one.

From the outside to the inside, the colours of a primary bow are; red
orange
yellow
green
blue
indigo
violet.

the colours of a secondary bow are reversed.

If you are lucky you may one day see a tertiary bow, if you turn in the opposite direction from that where you can see primary and secondary bows. the tertiary bow has its colours in the same order as the primary one. I have never seen a tertiary bow and have been looking for many years.

As far as size is concerned, you see more of a rainbow, the closer the sun is to the horizon.

If you see a rainbow from an aeroplane at say 30,000 feet, it looks like a ring.

If you walk to where you saw the rainbow touch the ground, it would have moved a bit further away, by the time you got there.

Have you ever heard the old saying "There's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow"? I think the saying started because you can never reach the end of the rainbow.

As you are at highish latitudes, you should have lots of opportunity to see rainbows in winter, when the sun is low. Also you get plenty of showers with sun. I always see more up where you are than in the South

Answer 3

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. 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. Occasionally, a second, dimmer secondary rainbow is seen outside the primary bow. Secondary rainbows are caused by a double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops, and appear at an angle of 50°–53°. As a result of the second reflection, the colours of a secondary rainbow are inverted compared to the primary bow, with blue on the outside and red on the inside. The dark area of unlit sky lying between the primary and secondary bows is called Alexander's band, after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

I don't know the answer I'm sorry.......but I envy you being where you are......the Highlands are my favourite place in the world. I'm in the middle of England.