How are rainbows formed. I know it’s about refraction from water droplets, but shouldn’t you see many tiny rainbows instead of one big one.
In: Physics
Imagine you glue a tiny mirror to the side of your neighbor’s house. (Don’t do this in real life unless you get a parent or guardian’s permission.) If you stand near the mirror and look at it, you can see your whole house. But if you stand back, you might only see a tiny bit of your house reflected in the mirror.
Now, imagine you glue a whole bunch of tiny mirrors all over your neighbor’s house. First, where did you get all that glue? Second, now you can see your whole house whether you’re close to the mirrors or far away. But notice–you are seeing one big reflection of your house, rather than a bunch of small ones. That’s because the closer you are to the mirror, the more you can see at once, but as you back up, the mirrors all reflect pieces of the image together, making one big image. (fun fact–this is how telescope mirrors work!)
Now, when it comes to rainbows, the same principle applies. If you could examine a single water droplet in the air, you might see a tiny rainbow coming out of it, but it would be very small and very faint. But the further you get from the water droplets, the more their light combines into a single big image–the big rainbow image we are familiar with.
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