Monochrome Rainbow

A 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. It takes the form of a multicolored circular arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of the sky directly opposite the sun. Color is shown in rainbows through the same concept as when a prism reflects color. A white beam emerges from the prism and is split up into individual beams of different colors. For the rainbow, all of this light comes from the sun. Each time a light beam bounces, it can get wider and that is how the length of each color is expanded. Each color bouncing in its own row. This also explains why we can sometimes see two or more rainbows due to the light bouncing through the droplets. A second rainbow is typically reversed since it’s a reflection of the primary rainbow. Rainbows are rare to see but can be made with water and light, so a sprinkler in your own yard! Rainbows may also take shape in a circle which is often seen when in an airplane. However, airplanes take a bow shape due to the physics of air that was studied in Carl Boyer’s book, The Rainbow From Myth to Mathematics. It is this concentration of rays near the minimum deviation that gives rise to the arc of the rainbow. A full moon is bright enough to have its own light refracted by raindrops at night.