Explanation Text - How is Rainbow Formed?

How is Rainbow Formed?

Rainbow is a natural phenomenon that is caused by the light refraction and reflections in the water drops, resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. A rainbow appears as a colorful arch. When they are caused by water and the sun, a rainbow shows up on the side of the sky that is directly facing the sun. They can become a complete loop at times, but for the average observers, only the arc will be seen.

The colors in the rainbow will be the ones that can be found within the white light color spectrum as it divides. There are 7 main colors that you can see in the Rainbow which are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. When the sunlight touches the water droplets, 7 colors emerge. When sunlight moving from air to water, the light colors are slowed down to various speeds - depends on their frequency. As purple light enters the raindrops, it bends at a sharp angle. On the right side of the water droplet, some light is passed back into the air, while the rest bounces back. Raindrops higher in the sky scatter the light so that only red light is visible to the observer's eyes. Droplets between red and violet reflect different colors, so the observer sees the full spectrum of colors.

Sunlight striking rain in the atmosphere is refracted at the surface of the raindrop and enters the droplet. After refraction occurs, the light breaks into seven colors inside the raindrop; it is then reflected to the other side of the raindrop after traveling inside it. When the light in the raindrop refracts, a spectrum is formed to make the 7 colors of the rainbow appear. During reflection, the angle (reflection) is equal to the angle of incidence; this means that the reflected light travels along a set path and maintains the difference in the angle of refraction. A rainbow is a set of raindrops suspended in the atmosphere that divides sunlight into 7 colors, like a prism.