Thursday, March 25, 2010

What is the (Funniest) scientific theory behind the Rainbow?

If I get a question like this today at this moment... This is what I would have answered.


Q: What is the scientific theory behind the Rainbow?
A: A rainbow is a multi colored big bow like structure that forms in the sky mostly before the rain.. or sometimes after it. Its a real beautiful thing with all the VIBGYOR colors. It exists for a short duration and then disappears.

Scientifically its said to be the phenomena that happens when the water molecules in the atmosphere reconsufiles (to confuse the teacher) the light from the sun and refracts (ohh.. there is a word like that) the high beam and low beam colors.

so, when human eyes see these refracted light in order of its wavelength contracting (please excuse) power, It will be seen as what we call the VIBGYOR color, namely Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red.

Among these, Violet is the least contrasting, and Red has the most contrasting wave length (again). the rest fall in between starting from lesser to higher from left to right. Thats why red is seen from very long distances - Eg. This is why Red is used for Danger Signals, Tail Lamps, Sign boards. traffic Signals etc. Violet, Indigo and Blue are not used in the traffic signals because of the same reason.

This is pure science, and to prove this we try an experiment, with a glass prism in the shape of a pyramid and a light source. (Actually have no clue.. if it would work)

First find a dark place with no lights other than our source of light that is a (electric or battery operated) torch light (need to streach it looong) Place a white paper on one side vertically standing 90 degres from the ground. Then switch on the torch light and keep it diagonally opposite to the paper so that the light beam directly falls over the centre of the paper.

Take the glass prism and keep it in between the light source that is the (electric or battery operated torch light) and the paper. Adjust the glass prism accordingly so that you can see the VIBGYOR colors on the paper.

Here the glass prism plays the role of the water molecules in the atmosphere. So this is how Rainbow is formed.

So this is the Scientific theory behind the rainbow, which is ultimately one of the the beautiful phenomenon in this world.

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