Rainbows can be spotted decorating the sky after rainfall. While this can be seen after showers of rain, rainbows are not always present after each shower. Conditions need to be fulfilled in order for them to appear.
How Do Rainbows Occur?
According to Science Alert, rainbows occur when there are water droplets within the air and when the sun is right behind. Such conditions should be met because they are made by light seeping through such droplets of water.
Though the light seeping from the sun may seem white, the white light that can be spotted in everyday life is actually made of a variety of colors. When the light routes through a droplet, the colors separate.
National Geographic reports that when a droplet of rain gets hit with sunlight, some light gets reflected. The spectrum of electromagnet is filled with light that has varying wavelengths. Each one gets reflected at a specific angle. Hence, the spectrum gets separated and creates a rainbow.
Among the colors of the rainbow, the color red has the lengthiest wavelength of light that can be seen. It reaches around 650 nanometers.
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Rainbow Colors
While it has been commonly taught that there are seven colors in a rainbow, there is actually more to it. A rainbow does not just have violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red colors.
According to Science Alert, various colors blend with each other. It is also difficult to mark the end of one color and the start of another. In between each color is a blend of colors, such as turquoise that can be spotted between both blue and green. There are certain colors, however, that are blends of different colors that aren't directly beside each other.
An example of this would be brown, which is a combination of both red and green. However, the green and red bands of a rainbow don't stay next to each other. Both colors do not combine with each other to form brown.
Black, White, and Gray Cannot Be Found in Rainbows
NDTV reports that though there are various colors in a rainbow, both black and white can never be spotted on them.
Black is what appears when color is not present, while white is when all colors combine with each other.
When the raindrops refract light, the white light gets separated into what is called the visible spectrum. This means that the supposed white color no longer stays white.
Gray, on the other hand, is a combination of both black and white. Just like how black and white cannot be seen in a rainbow, it is still not possible to see the colors formed by mixing.
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