why does rainbow looks in a semicircle shape why not straight ?

Answer 1

The reason it is not straight like when light passes through a prism is because the light passing through the prismatic raindrops is not of a liner type. The light of the sun it coming through in a circular shape. As it passes through the millions of rain drops it spreads the visible spectrum and is reflected back, making the various wavelengths of light visible. You are actually looking at what should be a circle, but because of the horizon you are not able to see the bottom portion. Also if you look carefully you will see there are two different rainbows, which become visible when the light passing through the rain is at the correct angle. This is a specular effect caused by the light passing through more raindrops behind the ones causing the first rainbow. This specular effect can carry on even further to produce a third and fourth rainbow, but only if there are enough raindrops and if your eyes are receptive enough to view the phenomenon.

Answer 2

The rain drops which refract and reflect the sunlight to produce the rainbow should subtend a particular angle at the eye of the observer.According to simple geometricla principles,the rain drops which lie at this particular angle and direction opposite to the sun lie in the form of a full circe or a part of it(arc).Even there are enough rain drops to form a full circle,to an observer on erath,it will look like an arc as it is limited by the horizon.When the sun is near the horizon,an observer on a high mountain may see the whole circle of the rainbow.
So, the shape of the rainbow is full circle.What we see is a part of it.The part of a circle cannot be a straight line and it can only be an arc (or semicircle)in shape.

Answer 3

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. What I did not see in the explanations is the time frame. You don't see rainbows during the mid-day sun. The pitch or azimuth is vital to rainbow viewing The perfect time is anywhere in mid-morning or late afternoon. You can never see all of the rainbow. ianr1984 has a great response to this without bogging you down. I guess as an afterthought, if you need "Rainbow" as a whole, you could check out the "Straight Between The Eyes" CD. I guarantee it will make your day a lot more colorful.

Answer 4

actually it does not. It varieties a circle... 2 infact (there is usually a reasonably fainter rainbow accompanying the main well liked one, which isn't continuously seen). the rationalization we see it as a semi-circle is in simple terms by way of fact we (frequently) see it from the floor, so so, the backside a million/2 seems to vanish under the horizon. while you're viewing the the rainbow from a extreme vantage factor. Say a Tower or sky-scraper, you will see the great cirlce. i've got considered it and it blew my socks off. Rainbows are a situation of attractiveness. 2 little information for you: a million. No 2 anybody is ever finding at precisely an analogous rainbow, by way of fact in the event that they're status in 2 diverse positions (whether they're next to a minimum of one yet another) they're finding on the end result from a reasonably diverse perspective. consequently, the water droplets that are inflicting the end result for guy.a million are working in yet in any different case for guy. 2. 2. once you're finding at a rainbow, face it head on. The solar is often at as quickly as in the back of you. without fail... If this weren't the case you does no longer be finding at a rainbow... The solar's gentle passes you and consequences the water droplets at as quickly as in front of you... you will continuously be in between the solar and the rainbow. fairly rainbow's do no longer particularly exist. they're in basic terms a trick of the gentle, that's why you will in no way discover that pot of gold.

Answer 5

Imagine looking at a rainbow off to the east. The sun is setting behind you in the west. White sunlight (a combination of all the colours in the rainbow) travels through the atmosphere, flies eastward past your head, and hits the water droplets as they fall from a passing storm. When a beam of light hits one of these droplets, one of two things can happen: The light could simply pass through, or, more interestingly, it could hit the front of the droplet, bend as it enters, then reflect off the back of the droplet and leave through the front, back toward us. This is the light that forms rainbows.

The amount light bends as it passes through the droplet depends on the light's wavelength, or colour -- red light bends the most, orange and yellow slightly less, and so on, down to violet, which bends the least.

Since each colour is bent through a specific angle -- red light comes from the sun and is reflected back at an angle 42 degrees away from its original direction, while blue light bends only 40 degrees -- each colour appears at a different place in the sky. Red, say, denotes all those locations in the sky 42 degrees away from an imaginary line connecting the sun to the back of your head. Together, these places trace out an arch. Since blue appears only 40 degrees from this imaginary line (which also connects your head to its shadow), the blue arch of a rainbow is always below the red
When we see rainbows we see them as arcs when in truth they are formed as circles. There is a point called the antisolar point that the rainbow seems to form around. From the picture we see the antisolar point formed as a line from the observers head by the sun shining from behind.

Answer 6

A rainbow is actually a complete circle, you just can't see all of it very easily.

Answer 7

when you are staying under a shower in an outdoor public bath while the sun is shining, you can even see a full rainbow circle.

Answer 8

A rainbow is actually a complete circle, you just can't see all of it very easily.

Answer 9

Because the planet isn't straight.

Answer 10

Because the world is round and it's stretching around the world!?!?!