Eps 1707: The Hidden Mystery Behind Rainbows
— The too lazy to register an account podcast
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Host
Ken Robinson
Podcast Content
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Rainbows are created when sunlight shines through raindrops in the sky. As each raindrop reflects and refracts the light, it creates a brighter rainbow. This requires sunshine, which produces a secondary rainbow due to the light being reflected and refracted for a second time. White light enters the raindrop leaves, leaving white light on the other side after it is refracted. This forms a primary rainbow with seven distinct colors that bend as they enter our eyes.
If you’re lucky enough to be viewing a rainbow, you may be able to see a full circle. This is because sunlight reflects off the many raindrops at an angle of 41 degrees and then passes through the drops at the same angle before it reaches your particular vantage point. In order for light to bend 41 degrees, each raindrop must be of different heights, which explains why only certain drops will reflect light to your single viewpoint. When all these drops are combined from your single vantage point, they form a huge circle with arcs of rainbow colors.
But, if you were to move your vantage point and look again, you would see the same rainbow but with different colors. This is because each observer can only see tiny samples of colored light from countless little drops at many different locations. The convergence of these tiny samples mean that each observer can only see one color at a time and the whole rainbow will not be visible to any single observer. Despite this, it's still amazing that we can all see the same rainbow even if we don't all see the same colors. This hidden mystery behind rainbows is a reminder that even small things like drops of water can combine to create something truly magical when seen from our eyes.
Rainbows are formed when the sunlight is refracted at different wavelengths and when it passes through the droplets of water. It can happen many times, creating quadruple rainbows and triple even rainbows! The light that is refracted contains around 1 million colors in a continuum, all slightly different degrees.
When the sun shines, the light that hits the water droplets is composed of white light. When this white light hits the droplets, it gets broken up and separated into its individual components. By bouncing off each side of a water droplet, different colors of light are bent at different angles and when it reaches our eyes, we are able to see them as a spectrum. When you look at a rainbow, you can see reds, oranges, yellows greens blues and violets - all produced from one single beam of white light. The right moment to view a rainbow is when sun shines through rain clouds in the sky and refracts off millions of water droplets in the air.
The optical illusion of a rainbow is created when the right angle relative to the light source and the looking viewer is just right. This can be seen when an aligned observer line is present with the sunlight, rain and sight of a rainbow. The beauty of a rainbow is that it can last for only several seconds or minutes depending on one's location in relation to the direction of rain and sunlight. We often forget that behind this optical illusion lies reality; white light from the sun is refracted and turned into different colors by water droplets floating in the air. It's amazing to think that such a gorgeous sight can be created by something as simple as watering your garden! Rainbows are truly an amazing phenomenon, allowing us to witness beauty through their brilliant colors.
They are explained as an optical phenomenon when the sun is behind us and light passes through water droplets in the air, refracting the colors of the spectrum. This mystical appearance has been part of many mythologies from all around the world, with different myths explaining their beauty and mystery. Many cultures have seen rainbows as a miracle or a kind of blessing from their gods for their world and planet.
The ancient Greeks, for example, believed that rainbows were gods that lived in the sky. In the Norse mythology of Asgard, a bridge called Bifrost was used to connect the land of mortals to the realm of gods. In some Abrahamic traditions, rainbows were seen as a symbolized god's pledge or covenant that he would not send another great flood to cover the world again. This same idea was present in some Native American tribes who saw rainbows as a bridge connecting between two worlds and attached special meaning to it. All these cultures have seen rainbows as something special and a sign from their gods that they are watching over them. Rainbows have always symbolized hope and renewal even after times of darkness or floodwater and continue to do so today when we see them after a rainfall.
They serve as a reminder of the sun covenant, a promise between God and the living creatures on earth to not destroy all flesh with floods. This hidden mystery behind rainbows is that when we behold God's splendor in them, we remember the covenant. When God sends clouds to bring rain, He is also sending the sun to make sure that a rainbow appears in its wake. The sun and clouds come together as a reminder of His promise not to become overly flooded and take away life from all living creatures on the planet.
When these two elements collide, a rainbow appears in the sky, a manifestation of God's creation. A rainbow is formed as raindrops refract the light from the sun and each color is formed by different wavelengths of light. As sunlight passes through each raindrop, it is bent and then separated into its different colors- red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet- which we can see with our own eyes. At certain peak points when the intensity of light reaches its maximum value in the raindrop, it goes off into different colors manifesting His character.