Knowing about Rainbow

This natural phenomenon occurs only after rain. So beautiful, so inspiring a lot of songs, tales, and legends. But from the science’s view of point, the rainbow is very simple. It was just a mere optical physics. The key of the rainbow is a refraction of light. When refracted, the light will change direction. This distortion usually occurs when light moves from one medium to another. This happens because the light moves with different speeds in different mediums.

When entering a glass prism, the light will be deflected. Similarly, if exit from the prism. In addition to refract light, a prism separates white light into its color components. Different colors of light are different in frequency, and thus have a different velocity when entering a substance. The low speed of light inside the glass will be deflected more sharply when moving from air to glass, because the speed difference varies. Not surprisingly, the components that make up white light are separated based on frequency when passing through glass. In the prism, the light will be deflected twice, when entering and exiting, so that the spreading of light occurs. The drops of rainwater can refract and spread light like a prism. In the right conditions, this refraction forming rainbows.