RAINBOW FORMATION

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FORMATION OF A RAINBOW

                                                           

The amazing combination of sun and rain results in a rainbow. But do you know why the rainbow forms?

What is a rainbow?

Rainbow is a colorful band which looks like a multicolored semi circle and is always seen in opposite to the direction of the sun. Rainbow can be also seen as a full circle. If we look from the airplane, it is seen as a full circle but from ground a half circle (as the horizon hides the rest). It is a ray of light in water droplets. It has seven colors which includes violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. The acronym for these seven colors is VIBGYOR.



Formation of rainbow

A rainbow appears because of majorly three phenomenon i.e. total internal reflection, refraction, dispersion. A rainbow is seen after rain because it requires droplets of water sailing in the air. The sunlight when falls on the droplet , it goes through the surface and bends a little(due to refraction of light). White light splits into multi-colors due to dispersion of light into its seven constituent colors. When the light departs the water droplets, it is divided into all its wavelengths. When these rays of light reach our eyes, we see the band of colors which is what we call as the rainbow.

Sometimes a secondary rainbow is also visible. First rainbow is seen because of first reflection and second because of second reflection(total internal reflection) inside the droplet. The second rainbow has the opposite order of colors means violet at the top and red at the bottom.



 

 

 

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