

Visibility Rainbows can be observed whenever there are water drops in the air and sunlight shining from behind the observer at a low altitude angle.īecause of this, rainbows are usually seen in the western sky during the morning and in the eastern sky during the early evening.

These include not only rain, but also mist, spray, and airborne dew. Rainbows can be caused by many forms of airborne water. Color vision, and no banding of any type is seen in a black-and-white photo of a rainbow, only a smooth gradation of intensity to a maximum, then fading towards the other side.įor colors seen by the human eye, the most commonly cited and remembered sequence is Newton’s seven fold red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, remembered by the mnemonic, Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain (ROYGBIV).

Any distinct bands perceived are an artifact of human. Rainbows span a continuous spectrum of colors. Even if an observer sees another observer who seems “under” or “at the end of” a rainbow, as seen by the first observer. Indeed, it is impossible for an observer to see a rainbow from water droplets at any angle other than the customary one of 42 degrees from the direction opposite the light source. Thus, a rainbow is not an object and cannot be physically approached. In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, with red on the inner side of the arc.Ī rainbow is not located at a specific distance from the observer, but comes from an optical illusion caused by any water droplets viewed from a certain angle relative to a light source. This rainbow is caused by light being refracted when entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it. In a primary rainbow, the arc shows red on the outer part and violet on the inner side. Rainbows can be full circles however, the average observer sees only an arc formed by illuminated droplets above the ground, and centered on a line from the sun to the observer’s eye. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the sun. Rainbow And Double Rainbows Explained With ScienceĪ rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky.
