why do we see the rainbow?

Answer 1

The water droplets in a rainshower are refracting the sunlight and you are at the proper viewing angle to observe it.

You also can see a fogbow because of the same effect, only the fogbow isn't as spectacular as the rainbow, which shows you the entire visible spectrum of light.

The fogbow will be a bright white arc as the sun comes up and starts to burn the fog off.

When conditions are right, and you are in the right spot, you can observe a double rainbow, because of the same conditions listed above.

Answer 2

The bending of sunlight by the raindrops is the key to forming the colorful rainbows.

In some cases, light is reflected twice by each rain drop, forming a larger, fainter secondary rainbow outside the primary rainbow. The colors of the secondary rainbow are in reverse order from the primary rainbow.

You are probably inclined to call any kind of display of more than one color in the sky a "rainbow," especially if it's curved. It turns out that deciding whether you are seeing a rainbow is the easiest thing to do, just apply the rainbow rule.

The rainbow rule: To see a rainbow or even a small part of a rainbow, the sun has to be directly behind you. Water drops have to be in the air where you see the rainbow. The drops could be falling rain in the distance, a waterfall, a lawn sprinkler, a fountain, or some other source of falling water drops.

Answer 3

Scientifically, the sunlight shines through moisture in the atmosphere, which is why we see a rainbow after a rainstorm. The sunlight is passing through moisture or precipitation at a certain angle, like a triangular prism, revealing the spectrum of colors contained in light.

Hey!!! if there's a rainbow, but no one sees it, is it still there?
Sorry, I couldn't resist being silly for a moment.

Food for thought:
Supposedly, there was a time long ago, before the flood of Noah's time, when rainbows did not appear in the sky. After the flood came and supposedly destroyed an evil world, God "placed his bow" in the sky (a rainbow) as a symbol of his vow to never again use a flood to destroy the world again.
Imagine that !!! So, thank God for rainbows...

Answer 4

It is largely due to refraction of light emission. Since white light is made up of the 7 basic colours, when it is split through a lens or rain droplet, the different frequencies appear as separate hues. The hemispherical shape is an influence of gravity in a reflection of the curvature of the planet. Most often rainbows look most vivid against a background of either a dark cloud or sunset. A study of the science of light will reveal all answers. On a mythological note rainbows have a deep spiritual significance.

Answer 5

IF you ask a "born again christian" and you ask a scientist, you will 2 different answers. The born again christian will telll you a lovely story from the bible that will give you the best spiritual feeling you will ever have. If you ask a scientist, he will give you an answer that you satisfy your intellect, & your logic. Rain bows are seen when the sun shines or reflects on mist that is left in the air after it rains or when you are by a water fall. You can see the different uva & uvb rays that are being sent through the atmosfere by the sun.
The bible's story is much better and the bible hasn't lied. When God send the floods, to cleanse the earth of all evil, he promised the remaining family ( noahs), that the sign of the rainbow was a promise that he will never end humanity or evil with another flood. Fire is the next. That is why I love it when it rains. I know God is using this method to clean the earth of all garbage and dog poop that pigish people leave behind LOL!!! ( metaphor)

Answer 6

Because your eyes, the sunlight and the water droplets are in the right relationship. Light is scattered by any condensation in the atmosphere, but we are not always in the rigt place to see the colours that are separated by this effect.

Usually, wet weather comes on gradually, so you don't often get enough sun while the rain approaches. As the rain moves away, a rainbow shows in the drops that are still falling, or the layer of air where vapour is condensing out to supply new rain.

Rainbows appear at all sorts of other places, but they are often less obvious because they don't involve dramatic changes in the weather.

Answer 7

When light passes from air into water (or glass), or water into air, different colors are refracted (bent) a different amount. Red is refracted the least, and violet the most. And so, the colors are separated into a spectrum, or rainbow. When raindrops are in the air, most light is either reflected off of the drops or goes right through them. If the light enters at certain angles, the light enters the drop, is reflected inside, and then exits the drop. Entering and exiting the drop, the colors are separated. You see red light come from a raindrop because that drop is at just the correct angle (about 42 degrees) between your eye and the sun so that the red light coming from the sun is refracted, reflected, and refracted again right into your eye. Blue light comes from another raindrop at a slightly different angle. All the raindrops that are at a certain angle between your eye the sun form a circle in the sky. That is why the rainbow is a circle.

Answer 8

If You Think Thats Cool Check Out Upside-Down Rainbows Which Sometimes Occur Above A Normal One!!
the colours we see in a rainbow are created by light from the sun diffracting through the droplets of water, this is why a rainbow only appears during a rainshower in direct sunlight.
sunlight passes through the water which acts kind of like a lens splitting it into its component colours

Answer 9

The rain droplets high in the air reflect the light of the sun, thus creating the visual effect of a rainbow. Rainbows do not appear after every rainstorm, however. You do need the sun coming out to help.

Answer 10

A rainbow is caused by the sun's rays being refracted through the water droplets like a prism (Pink Floyd album cover "Dark Side of the Moon").

Because differing colours of light have different wavelengths, is the reason for the arcing of the colours. Violet the shortest, red the longest.

That is the easiest way I can think about nature's most startling visual effect