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What causes rainbows and what exactly are they

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What causes rainbows and what exactly are they

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  1. rainbows are caused by refraction (scattering of light due to its entrance into a medium) in this case, after a rain storm, the water particles serve as the medium. At different angles the light hits, it corresponds to different wavelengths ie. colors


  2. Light and water create rainbows. However, to see a rainbow, it must be raining in one part of the sky, the sun shining from the opposite part, and you must have your back to the sun. Then raindrops, like tiny prisms, scatter the white sunlight into brilliant colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and make a rainbow.

    Parts of a bow can often be seen below the horizon against a backdrop of fields or the ground. A more complete circle is sometimes visible from mountains or aircraft.

  3. Rainbows are optical phenomenon caused by the process of refraction. When sunlight strikes a concentrated group of water droplets (take rain showers for example), the light itself is bent to form an arc of seven distinct colors found in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The color with the longest wavelength and lowest frequency (which is red) is placed on the top. The color with the shortest wavelength and highest wavelength (which is violet) is placed at the bottom.

  4. Rainbows are caused by the splitting of white sunlight into it component colors by raindrops. Some of the light that falls on a water drop enters the drop. As it enters the drop, the light is bent (refracted) and split into a rainbow of colors. This is because each color of light gets bent by a slightly different amount. The different colors then reflect off the back of the drop, and when they pass through the front of the drop again, they are bent (refracted) still more. A rainbow is always directly opposite the sun from the observer. This explains why rainbows are only seen when the sun is low in the sky, usually in the late afternoon. The rainbow's location will appear different for observers at different locations, but it is always directly opposite the sun.  

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