Why are rainbows the colors that they are?

Question

When it rains with the sun out it usually forms a rainbow. But why are there only certain colors on the rainbow? Hope that makes sense!

Answer 1

Great question. When we see a rainbow & its many colors, we are looking at colors that are retracted & deflected from the sunlight shining on raindrops in the air, seen in many angles. There are also colors that we aren't seeing with the naked eye but they're there just the same.

Answer 2

In reality, the rainbow colors merge gradually into one another. Our eyes sort them into groupings. How many colors are in the rainbow? Anywhere from three to, as many as, several thousand. It depends on who is counting and what they believe is there. Funny how what we expect to see is often what we see.

Answer 3

Light is made up of every color there is. When a ray of light passes through something, like water vapor in the air, it gets compressed. When it's reflected off of something, like a wooden table, some of the light is absorbed, and the rest bounces away, being compressed, giving us the brown color of wood.