Tuesday, January 25, 2011

RAINBOWS

Rainbows are awesome. Have you ever looked at them right after it rains, or through the water outside? Well, I have and I think that they are interesting.
A rainbow is an arch of light showing the colors of the light spectrum. The colors are seen in order with red on the outside, followed by orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Rainbows are caused by drops of water that are falling through the air. They are usually seen in the sky opposite to the sun at the end of a shower. They can also be seen in the spray of waterfalls.
When the sunlight enters a raindrop it is bent by and reflected from the drop. When this happens the light appears as a spectrum of colors. But, the colors can only be seen when the angle of reflection between the sun, the water drop, and the observer's line of version is between 40 degrees and 42 degrees.
The rainbow appears high when the sun is low in the sky, the rainbow is lower, when the sun is higher. When the sun is up higher than 42 degrees above the horizon, a rainbow cannot be seen because the required angle passes over the head of the observer. Do you think that the rainbows in the pictures are pretty and neat? I hope so!

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