What Makes a Rainbow

Rainbows, appearing during the rain after the rains or due to mist, are a beautiful natural phenomena. One can see the beautiful seven colors of the rainbow, across the sky after or during the rain and when the sun is present too. We get to see the naturally occurring phenomena of a rainbow, though quite rarely . However, it is possible for you to watch these seven colors of rainbow at home with some simple experiments. Here, is explanation behind rainbow, some interesting facts about rainbows and simple experiments you can conduct to form your own rainbow.

What Makes a Rainbow in the Sky?

Sir Isaac Newton discovered that sunlight falling upon a prism can be split into its component colors. This process is known as dispersion. Then Newton named these components as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. These are the colors of the rainbow in order. These colors are quite easy to distinguish except for indigo.

Similar to the prism experiment, which disperses white light in such a way that it produces the seven colors, the natural phenomena of rainbow occurs. When it rains, the atmosphere gets filled with raindrops. These raindrops act as a prism. When sunlight passes through these raindrops at a specific angle, the light gets split into the spectrum, which is made up of the various rainbow colors. And, thus we get to see the rainbow.

Interesting Facts About Rainbow

Above was the explanation on how rainbows are formed, here are more fun facts on rainbows.

• Rainbow similar to music are made of the same stuff, except for vibrating at a different frequency.
• The true shape of the rainbow is a complete circle.
• When a rainbow is viewed from a plane, one can see the entire circle of rainbow, as you will be able to look down on raindrops as well as up to them.
• The angle of light refraction needed to create a rainbow is 42 degrees to the eye of the observer.
• Many people think that rainbow contains only red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. However, a rainbow is actually made of an entire continuum of colors, even some colors which our ordinary eyes can't see!
• Iris is the Greek goddess of rainbow.
• Every single person gets to see their own personal rainbow. This is so because, when you are looking at a rainbow you get to see the light reflected off certain raindrops, but when a person next to you gets to see the same rainbow, the light reflection angle is changed and he sees his own personal rainbow.
• Rainbow have relaxing and healing qualities!
• There is a rare natural phenomena called fire rainbow, in which you can see the rainbow colors, except for the shape of rainbow is not an arched one, but resembles more to flames. Just run an internet search on pictures on fire rainbow, and you will get to see the fire rainbow.

Making Your Own Rainbow

Here are three experiments which you can perform at home easily, and see the beautiful phenomena of rainbow.

Method# 1: Using a CD
This is a very easy to perform experiment. Take a clean CD and place it label side down. Look at the CD under a light or near a window, and voila! You get to see a rainbow, you can keep tilting the CD to see how the colors keep shifting with the angle.

Method# 2: Using a Sunny Window
Fill a clear glass with water. Place it on a table which is in front of a sunny window. Then place a sheet of white paper on the floor. Then wet the window with hot water, keep adjusting the glass and paper till you get to see a rainbow.

Method# 3: Using a Water Hose
You need to perform this experiment on a bright, sunny day. Stand with your back against the sun, and hold the water hose in your hand, create a mist by placing finger over the water hose. Continue looking at the mist, to see the rainbow.

I hope this article cleared your doubts on rainbow and how it occurs. So, perform the above experiments to see the beautiful spectrum of rainbow colors yourself!