why do we have rainbows?

Answer 1

Light that comes from the sun is composed of many wavelengths (colors) of light.

When light hits a raindrop, the different wavelengths of light take different paths through the drop, splitting all the different wavelengths (colors) apart, giving us all the colors that we see

Answer 2

There are two processes at work, refraction and reflection. The light entering the raindrop is refracted (bent) by the change from air to water (the same thing that makes a stick seem to bend when we put it in water). The different wavelengths of light are refracted at slightly different angles so the white sunlight is split into its spectrum.The light is reflected off the back of the raindrop and emerges from the front of the drop being refracted again.

An observer has to be looking at the rain with the sun behind her/him. The observer then sees the colours of the rainbow. The sun cannot be higher in the sky than 42° which is why we see most rainbows in the morning or evening.

No-one sees eactly the same rainbow. I see the colour that reaches my eye from a particular drop but the colour that reaches your eye from the same drop would be different if you are higher or lower than I am.

You can have more than one reflection in a raindrop. If the light is reflected inernally round the drop again before it emerges, we see it as a secondary rainbow above the first.

Answer 3

The colors of the rainbows represent different aspects of creation, life and of the human bio-field. Read up on Charkas. They are the colors of the rainbow. We humans are in fact a rainbow... kirlian photography will show you that.
Red - safety/security (an instinct for the purpose of survivial of the human race); orange - sexuality/family/finances (an instinct for the purpose of procreating for survival of the human race); yellow - personal power (knowing who you truly are and how you manifest in the world); green - love (the heart, from which all things 'should' emerge - our thoughts, feelings, actions); blue - willingness (developing the ability to 'let go & let God', to surrender to a higher will instead of needing to have things our way, and 'the voice', the ability to communicate with one another; Indigo - clarity (where psychics have this area very open - it allows us to see beyond this reality, as in 'the 3rd eye' between our eyes in the forehead and allows us to see things as they 'truly are'); violet - Divinity (our connection with whatever you call that Infinite being (God, Light, Source, etc.), where the enegy of the cosmos comes into our body and is processed through the matrix of our brain.

Answer 4

OK, mystics and religious myth believers, this is pretty ridiculous - of all the natural phenomenon that people used to not know how to explain and thus assumed is was caused by some supernatural agent, this one is one of the easiest to explain - they are caused by the refraction of sunlight through water drops in the atmosphere.
There is no longer a need to resort to supernatural ideas to explain natural phenomenon...

Answer 5

albert has a point.it's like he said.When the sun's light hits a raindrop,the different wavelengths of light take different paths through the drop, splitting all the different wavelengths (colors) apart.I stared your question and I think I deserve a best answer and some thumbs ups.

Answer 6

Well I'm not overly religious or anything but in the bible during the story of Noah it says that God created rainbows to signify a promise that he'd never kill all of mankind again. So that's pretty sweet...

Answer 7

Check this page: http://www.eo.ucar.edu/rainbows/