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Thursday 1 August 2013

WHAT THE END OF A RAINBOW LOOKS LIKE


New Picture 34
What the End of a Rainbow Looks Like
By
Twisted Sifter, 29 July 2013.

A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection of light in water droplets in the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky.

A rainbow is not located at a specific distance, but comes from any water droplets viewed from a certain angle relative to the sun’s rays. Thus, a rainbow is not an object, and cannot be physically approached. It is impossible for an observer to see a rainbow from water droplets at any angle other than the customary one of 42 degrees from the direction opposite the sun. Even if an observer sees another observer who seems “under” or “at the end of” a rainbow, the second observer will see a different rainbow - further off - at the same angle as seen by the first observer.

The most commonly cited and remembered sequence of colours is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Rainbows can be caused by many forms of airborne water. These include not only rain, but also mist, spray, and airborne dew.

In the series of photographs below, we see the mystified end (or beginning) of a rainbow. Aside from the folklore surrounding leprechauns and pots of gold at the end of rainbows, they are also an interesting phenomena to capture, visually speaking.

As for physically ‘reaching’ the end of the rainbow that of course is not possible as the angle in which you see a rainbow changes as you move toward it, as explained above.

New Picture 35
Photograph by Joona Kotilainen

New Picture 36
Photograph by Wing-Chi Poon

New Picture 37
Photograph by Jason Erdkamp

New Picture 38
Photograph by Sathish J

New Picture 39
Photograph via chetlin on Reddit

New Picture 40
Photograph by framboise on Flickr

New Picture 41
Photograph by Bill Bereza

New Picture 42
Photograph by Tom and Haley Sulcer

New Picture 43
Photograph by Kristen Beck

New Picture 44
Photograph by Beth Walsh Photography

New Picture 45

New Picture 46
Photograph by Lars Erik-Franson

Top image: Full featured double rainbow in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska. Photograph by Eric Rolph.

[Source: Twisted Sifter. Edited.]



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