SCIENCE OF RAINBOWS🌈

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Although a very common phenomena, a "Rainbow" is something which will always leave people baffled.They're breathtaking natural wonders, but the science behind them is much more beautiful and also very simple. It owes it's magnificence to the three fundamental properties of light, namely: 
  • Reflection - bouncing back of light from a surface.
  • Refraction- change in the direction of light wave passing from one medium to another.
  • Dispersion- separation of white light into different colours (different wavelength).

Rainbows are a "Meteorological" phenomena caused by refraction,reflection and dispersion of sunlight in water droplets which forms a spectrum of light in mid air. It usually appears as a circular arc.It is to be noted that a rainbow is not located at a specific distance from the observer, but comes from an "Optical illusion", caused by water droplets viewed from a certain angle relative to a light source. This means they are not "Physical objects" which can be felt. They can be seen only when sunlight shining from behind the observer at a low attitude angle,strikes the raindrops in the air. This is the reason why rainbows are usually visible in the western sky in the morning and eastern sky in the evening. Also there are "Primary" and "Secondary" rainbows.


"Primary" rainbows are formed when light entering a droplet of water, undergoes refraction and reflection inside the droplet and is refracted again before leaving the droplet. In such a case, red colour is shown on outer part and violet on the inner part.

In the case of "Secondary" rainbow, a secondary arc is seen outside the primary one, and the order of colours are reversed. This happens when light rays are reflected twice inside the droplet before it finally leaves it. 


Apart from these two major variations, several other types of rainbows have also been found. Few mentions are: Supernumerary rainbows,monochrome rainbows,fog bows,full-circle rainbows,twinned rainbows etc. Each of them have their own unique reasons for existence. If you look at history, you can see that humankind have always had a passion for learning and exploring various natural phenomena and will always continue to do so as learning is a never ending process. Hope you guys enjoyed this article. Have a nice day.

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