We all know that light follows Rectilinear Propagation and it sometimes bend while diffraction, but i never understand the concept of rainbow and the reason why it is a curve. I have read books and all and everywhere it says that white light passes through raindrops and boom! It is now a circular arc of 7 lights. I understand the phenomenon of refraction and know light of different wavelengths separate when passes through a prism. But after passing through prism, those light travels straight.
But why is rainbow curve? 🌈
In: 21
Rainbows are actually circular.
It is just that usually half the circle is below the horizon.
The way rainbows appear is that the center of rainbow is on the exact opposite direction of the sun from your head. Meaning that the sun will be behind you when you look at an rainbow.
The thing is that the rainbow is not actually there.
What is there is a bunch of water drops suspended in the air that reflect light coming from behind you back into your eyes.
since the drops are round and light gets reflected at slightly different angles depending on the wavelength you get what looks like differently colored concentric circles.
The rainbow isn’t really there and there is no put of gold or home of the Norse gods at the end.
The light goes more er less straight from the sun, though the air into the water and back into your eyes.
It is just that ever times it switches medium like nothing to air or air to water it has a little change of direction (which is why things underwater look to be in a different place then they are). that change of direction is different for different colors so you don’t just see a single white ring, but a rainbow.
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