(Almost) Everything you need to know…about rainbows 🌈🌤️🌧️
Rainbows. We all know ‘em. Most of us love ‘em. And you’d be hard-pushed to find someone who was online in 2010 and doesn’t recall that delightful record of Paul L. Vasquez’ joy at seeing a double rainbow back in 2010.
#Rainbows occur when sunlight is refracted, or bent, by water droplets in the atmosphere, creating a sequence of colors: red on the outside of the curve, then orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet on the inside. The bigger the raindrops, the brighter and more saturated a rainbow’s colors.
You’ll only ever see a rainbow when facing a rain shower with the sun shining from behind you. A primary rainbow’s arc radius is usually about 42 degrees from your line of sight. Unfortunately, this means you’ll never find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow because you’ll never reach the end of a rainbow. Basically, it’s all a lie. Sorry!
Aristotle was one of the first dudes to scientifically study rainbows, followed by the Persian scholar Ibn al-Haytham in his Book of Optics. And Isaac Newton established the color sequence in rainbows (ROYGBIV, the name of your next EP) when he refracted light through a glass prism. Rainbows are old, man.
Rainbows can also be seen around other light sources, like the moon baby! And on the subject of the cosmos, Earth is apparently the only planet in the solar system where rainbows occur. We have no way of verifying this.
That’s all for now. Go forth, ye light seekers! xoxo
