The colours of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet make up the Sun’s white light. White light enters one individual rain droplet and exits as one specific color of the spectrum.
This is called dispersion.
Concept
Rainbows are formed because of the interaction between rain and light.
The colours of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet make up the Sun’s white light. White light enters one individual rain droplet and exits as one specific color of the spectrum.
The same thing applies to the formation of rainbows. Suspended water droplets serve as a type of reflector of light. The light from the Sun behind the observer is first refracted entering the surface of the raindrop, reflected off the back of the drop, and again refracted as it leaves the drop. The overall effect is that the incoming light is reflected back over a wide range of angles, thus dispersing the white light into the spectrum of colours in a rainbow and reflecting them into the observer’s eyes. The angle is independent of the size of the drop, but does depend on its refractive index.
This is called dispersion.
So,
The colours of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet make up the Sun’s white light. White light enters one individual rain droplet and exits as one specific color of the spectrum.
This is called dispersion.
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