Rainbows

What is a wavelength?

- Light is measured by its wavelength - This "visible light" corresponds to a wavelength and a color range of violet through red - The human eye is not capable of "seeing" radiation with wavelengths outside the visible spectrum. - Sunlight consists of the entire electromagnetic spectrum

How is a rainbow formed?

- Rainbows happen when sunlight and rain combine in a very specific way - the beams of sunlight separate into the colors we see in the rainbow as they enter a raindrop - sunlight is actually made up of different colors that we don't usually see

What are the colors of the rainbow in order?

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Alexander's band

The band of dark sky between the double rainbows

Double rainbows

- a double rainbow happens when the light bends and reflects off the water drops in the air TWICE - In other words, the second rainbow is a reflection of the first rainbow - the second or double rainbow will be light in color and the colors will be reversed

How do prisms work

- When light passes through a prism the light bends - As a result, the different colors that make up white light become separated - This happens because each color has a particular wavelength and each wavelength bends at a different angle.

Why can't we normally see rainbows?

- When you look at the sunlight the light looks white - It isn't white though, it is actually a whole lot of different colors - the light coming from the sun is actually every color we see in a rainbow - the light we see is white because it is not passing through anything