A rainbow is an optical effect that is comprehensively an atmospheric one whereby light, often the Sun’s light, gets refracted and reflected by water droplets. The process involves three primary stages: reflecting light, refracting it, and scattering it in all directions. They all cooperate to create a beautiful spectrum of colours, as seen in a rainbow. Here is an in-depth look at how a rainbow is formed: Here is an in-depth look at how a rainbow is formed:
Refraction:
As much as I’m informed, when light passes through to a droplet of water, for instance, then it slows down and bends. This bending of light is called refraction. Refraction refers to the change of route light takes while passing through an interface where there is a change in media. Again, the amount of bending is proportional to the wavelength (colour) of the light. Blue and violet colours are refracted more than red and orange as they are of shorter wavelength than the latter. Consequently, its dispersing effects revert to their base sources of colours about the principle of a prism.
Reflection:
Next, the light does Ray-Bent passing through the outer surface of the droplet and is reflected from the inside surface of the droplet. Part of this light is reflected off the droplet. This internal reflection is critical because pointing the light this way sends it out of the droplet in a direction we can see. The light that enters the droplet can make multiple internal reflections depending on the angle at which the light hits the inner surface of the droplet. Still, the primary rainbow is made up of a single internal reflection.
Dispersion:
As the light exits the droplet, it also gets refracted or bent differently. This second refraction again averts the light and splits it into various colours, as seen earlier. Whenever the light gets out of the droplet, it disperses in a spectrum of colours; hence, the name dispersion. Thus, the observer can see the rainbow because light from many drops points towards their eyes. Every droplet produces only one colour of the rainbow that the observer sees, but all droplets disperse in the sky to form the whole spectrum.
Viewing Angle and Rainbow Shape:
A rainbow is always observed in that part of the sky opposite the sun. Light exits the droplet at an angle of around 42 degrees for the red light and about 40 degrees for the violet light. This specific angular range gives the circular arc of the rainbow. That is why one would see a more significant part of the circle at particular periods of the day when the sun is lower across this astronomical entity. During the day, when the sun is higher, more of the circle is obscured, and only a portion or segment is seen.
Conclusion:
rainbows are beautiful natural formations caused by light and water droplets. THESE LAYERS OF REFRACTION, REFLECTION, AND DISPERSION MAKE UP THE MULTI-COLORED ARC THAT INTERESTED ONLOOKERS SEE. The conditions under which the rainbow is formed can be viewed as the impeccable geometrical handling of the angles, thus presenting one of Mother Nature’s dances of light and water.
Thanks for reading…..
