• Question: What causes a rainbow?

    Asked by danniella1588 to Colm, Eoin, Joseph, Lauren, Stephen on 13 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: colm bracken

      colm bracken answered on 13 Nov 2013:

      Great question danniella1588!
      The suns light is made up of all the colors of the rainbow. When they are all mixed together they make yellowish-whitish light that we see. If we can split the light up again we see a rainbow. Water droplets high in the sky act like little lenses, or prisms, and scatter the different colors of light in different directions. We see this as rainbow!

    • Photo: Eoin O Colgain

      Eoin O Colgain answered on 13 Nov 2013:

      Occasionally there is a second rainbow. This happens when light is reflected TWICE inside the droplet. Good to keep an eye out for this effect.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_rainbow#Variations

    • Photo: Stephen Scully

      Stephen Scully answered on 14 Nov 2013:

      The white light from the Sun hits water in the air. Different parts of the light are bounced off at different angles, this separates the colours of the light into what we see as a rainbow.

    • Photo: Joseph Roche

      Joseph Roche answered on 16 Nov 2013:

      Sunlight being broken up by a little droplet of water…

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