Rainbows... I know its a refraction of light from water droplets but......?

Question

Why do we see an arc (shape)?

Why do we sometimes see two arcs?

And where exactly do the orginate from? start from? a cloud?

Why exactly always the same bands of colour?

Wow! so many good answers. I`ll let the you guys decide best answer - There all amazing! Thanks!

Answer 1

1) Well, when light if refracted through a prism, usually, a circle is formed, but in the rainbows type, the light is not fully refracted throught the rain because water is not the best prism.

2) Sometimes there are two arces because more than one prism is refracting light.

3) The water molecules, or just in most cases the rain.

4) They are always the same colors because those are the basic colors of light when refracted through a prism.

Answer 2

There are two processes involved in making a rainbow, refraction and reflection. The light enters the raindrop and is refracted, bent. This breaks the white light into the spectrum of visible colours. The light is then reflected off the back of the raindrop and refracted again as it comes out of the front.

The angles involved mean that the sun must be lower than 42° above the horizon to see a rainbow. The parallel rays from the Sun are directed towards an observer who sees separate colours from different raindrops equidistant from each other. This results in the coloured arc of the rainbow.

If the light is reflected round the raindrop again instead of coming out the first time, a secondary bow appears. Three times round produces a tertiary bow but this is very difficult to see as it is closer to the Sun.

The colours in the primary and secondary bows are reversed and the dark sky between them is called Alexander's dark band.

Answer 3

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 4

White Light is the combination of all colors of light. When white light hits a prism or a drop of water it gets dispersed into the different colors that make it up.

We always see the same bands of color because thats the spectruum of visible light.

The spectruum of visible light is Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. Red has the longest wavelength of visible light, while Violet has the shortest, and everything else is in between. So that's why we always seem them in that order. Sometimes we see two or more arcs because the light from the sun is being dispersed in 2 different places, and when it gets dispersed it might change where its going. They start from light hitting rain and the rain drops acting as a prism.

Answer 5

Why do we see an arc (shape)?

Colour is our perception of waves of light of different wavelengths. As you know, raindrops act as refracting prisms. Different wavelengths (colours) refract at different angles. If a colour refracts at, say, 23 degrees, you will only see that colour when it is 23 degrees from your eye - hence you see circular bands of colours. (That colour's refracting that is not 23 degrees from your eye will miss your eye as your eye is not 23 degrees from the refraction and so you won't see it). Hence, rainbow's are arcs of colour bands whatever your point of reference.

Answer 6

because the earth is round..

because there are 2 rainbows formed..

nope...it starts from the raindrops...when the light refracted by the rain droplets...

because the colour of spectrum is like that...