Growing up, I was taught that rainbows have 6 colors. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. It makes sense as it goes from primary color (red) to secondary color (orange) back to primary (yellow) back to secondary (green), to primary (blue) and finally ending on secondary (purple). Indigo is a blend of blue and purple, but purple is a blend of red and blue…..
In: Physics
Believe it or not every possible wavelength of light is present in a rainbow including radio waves, xrays, microwaves, infrared radiation, and uv. You can check this pretty easily by narrowing the curtains in a window facing the sun to a crack. Place a prism in front of this beam of light. Place a thermometer to the left of the red side of the spectrum. The thermometer will increase in temperature compared to a thermometer placed in the room away from the refracted light demonstrating the presence of invisible temperature increasing infrared light or as it’s more commonly referred to infrared radiation. Indeed a decent portion of energy emitted by the sun is infrared radiation which contributes to the heating of the earth.
How many rainbows have you seen op?
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