Let's Find Out How the End of Rainbow
- MCH 2019
VIVA – Rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that’s caused by reflection, refraction, and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicolored circular arc.
Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of the sky directly opposite the sun. But how the end of the rainbow looks like? Well, here’s the explanation.
According to observers, a rainbow actually can be a full circle. Since the rainbow is made in the sky, it does not touch the ground. So, if you are on the surface of the Earth, no matter how far you walk, the end of the rainbow will always look as if it is at the end of the horizon.
But what people don't realize is that a rainbow is a complete circle and it's obvious that a circle has no end.
Humans themselves never see the entire circle because the Earth's horizon gets in the way. It turns out that if you were to look at a rainbow from an airplane, it would be an almost complete circle. The end of the rainbow is also unreachable as it is an optical illusion. As we move towards the rainbow, the angle changes. So, millions of different raindrops create a new rainbow with a new angle.
For it to look like it has corners, the raindrops need to be at a certain distance from the eye. So no matter how we move, the rainbow will always be at the same distance. That's why we can never reach the end of the rainbow.
As information that rainbows are not visible in winter because of the snow. Rainbows are the result of light passing through the spectrum; therefore, the light is broken down and refracted into individual colors.
But in the winter months, the temperature in the upper atmosphere drops to freezing, causing raindrops to freeze into the snow. This blocks light from passing through the droplets or snowflakes and prevents rainbows from appearing.