What are Rainbows?

_Elsa_

When Elsa arrives at home, her curiosity about rainbows prompts her to turn on her computer to find out more information. She makes herself some fresh coffee and then starts googling. 

Aha! She finds an article that explains what a rainbow is and begins to read it.

‘Rainbows are some of the most spectacular phenomena in nature; they’ve fascinated and stimulated the imagination of people since the dawn of mankind and continue to do so to this day. There are all sorts of legends that surround them, from the treasure at the end of the rainbow to the house of gods for which the rainbow is a bridge, but the scientific facts are different. Unfortunately, to most people, rainbows remain a mystery. Here’s what the science says:

Rainbows are optical and meteorological phenomena that cause a spectrum of light to appear in the sky (mostly) when the Sun shines upon drops of moisture in our planet’s atmosphere. As the rays of light pass through the droplets of water, these droplets behave as a prism – splitting the so-called white light into different wave lengths. These rays take the form of a multicoloured bow, with 7 colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet (there are some interesting mnemonics to remember those, such as “Roy G. Biv” and “Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain”). The thing is that these colours are not separated, as is traditionally believed. Actually the rainbow spans a continuous spectrum of colours.’ (Source)

How did the Rainbow get its Name?

It is believed that the rainbow got its name from its shape. A rainbow’s arc looks similar to a bow for shooting arrows. People also noticed that this colorful arc would only form when it was raining so they called it a rainbow. ’ (Source) 

Wow! She never thought of how it got its name. Now she wants to see if she can find anything on how a rainbow forms. 

Let’s continue – How Are Rainbows Formed?

Start at the beginning - Elsa learns all about rainbows