RIAU24.COM – Rainbows are one of the most admired meteorological phenomena in the world, but how are they formed?
A rainbow is formed when light from the sun is scattered by water droplets (such as raindrops or fog) through a process called refraction.
Refraction occurs when light from the sun changes direction as it passes through a medium denser than air, such as raindrops. As soon as the refracted light enters the raindrop, the light is reflected from behind and then refracted again as it exits.
But how does refraction produce the colors of the rainbow?
Sunlight is made up of different wavelengths, or colors, which travel at different speeds as they pass through a medium.
This causes the white light to split into different colors. Longer wavelengths appear as red and shorter wavelengths appear as blue or purple.
We see the color spectrum of the rainbow as light passes through raindrops at different angles of about two degrees, from red to purple.
This is not a true spectrum as colors are mixed and blurred.
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