All About Rainbows

Rainbow Diagram

This week I am taking Anneliese's suggestion and using my blog to collect information for my concept map on rainbows. My question is: What makes a rainbow?

To make a rainbow you need sunshine, rain, and colors. The arc and the spectrum of colors are made when rays of light (sunshine) hit spherical raindrops. When the light passes into the raindrop, it refracts (bends). Then the light hits the back of the raindrop, then reflected (turned back), and finally bent again as it passes out of the raindrop. The bending of light at different angles causes the bow effect and the spectrum of light. In a rainbow, the full spectrum of light is there from ultraviolet to infrared, but because our eyes can only pick up a portion of this continum, we only see red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Also, we will only see rainbows in the morning or afternoon. The sun needs to be at our back and in our line of vision. If the sun is too high, as at noon, it cannot produce the angles needed for us to see a rainbow.