(i) There are millions of water droplets present in atmosphere. Rainbows are result of refraction of sunlight in falling on these water droplets present in the atmosphere. Also, reflection of the light from the back of the droplet.
(ii) A rainbow is a natural spectrum of sunlight in the form of bows appearing in the sky when the sun shines on rain drops.
(iii) Sunlight is a mixture of seven colours: Violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. After it has stopped raining, the atmosphere contains a large number of water droplets. When sunlight is incident on a water droplet, there is
- Refraction and dispersion of light as it passes from air to water
- Internal reflection of light inside the droplet
Refraction of light as it passes from water to air.
(iv) Always it formed in the direction opposite to the sun.
(v) To see a rainbow, the sun must behind us and the water droplets falls infront of us.
(iv) The combined action of different water droplets (acting like tiny prisms) produces a rainbow with red colour on the outer side and violet colour on the inner side. The remaining five colours lie between these two colours.
The rainbow is seen when the Sun is behind the observer and the water droplets are in the front.
