The rainbow is an attractive natural phenomenon. Many admire her, but not everyone knows what she is from a physical point of view. In fact, the rainbow is an atmospheric optical phenomenon.
Instructions
Step 1
A rainbow can only be seen if conditions are met. First, it must rain and the sun must shine at the same time. Second, the observer must stand with his back to the sun and see the rain in front of him. You will be able to see the rainbow if the sun is not high in the sky, but at about eye level, like the center of the rainbow. That is why it is observed most often in the morning or in the evening. This also happens after rain, when the air is filled with moisture.
Step 2
In essence, a rainbow is a visual effect, the decomposition of a sunbeam into a "spectrum" due to its falling on raindrops ("prism"). The sunbeam is originally white light, and white light includes all the colors of the rainbow. When it passes through a prism (in this case, raindrops), it refracts and breaks down into several colors. As a result, a white beam of light appears before the eyes of the observer in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue and violet. There are intermediate shades between the seven primary colors, which are usually invisible to the human eye from afar.
Step 3
All of these colors are parallel to each other and together they look like an arc. A person could see a rainbow in the form of a circle, if not for the earth's surface in sight. So from a height (from an airplane or a mountain) the whole rainbow can be seen - like a circle.
Step 4
Rainbows are primary (brighter) and secondary (paler). In the primary rainbow, the light is reflected in the drop once, the red color in it is outside the arc. In the secondary rainbow, the light in the droplet is reflected twice and red is inside the arc, and violet is outside.
Step 5
There is also a misty rainbow that occurs during fog. It is usually not colored, but rather white, since the mist droplets acting as a prism are very small. Sometimes a pale rainbow can be seen in the moonlight and rain. In this case, there should be a dark sky, and the moon should be low in the sky.