How is the rainbow formed?

1. When light passes through water droplets suspended in the atmosphere, a rainbow is formed. Light waves will change direction when passing through water droplets, resulting in two processes: reflection and refraction. When light is reflected on a water drop, it will be reflected back from the birthplace of the water drop in the opposite direction. When light is refracted, it will go in different directions.

2. The rainbow is formed because white light enters water droplets and bends in several different directions. When these curved light waves reach the other side of the water drop, they will reflect back to the water drop instead of completely passing through the water. Because white light is separated in water, refracted light is a different color to human eyes.

Extended data

1, rainbow is formed by the scattering and reflection of sunlight on spherical water droplets in the air. When sunlight enters the water drop, it will be incident at different angles at the same time and reflected at different angles in the water drop. The reflection of 40 to 42 degrees is the strongest, which produces the rainbow we see.

2. When this reflection is caused, the sunlight enters the water drop, refracts once, then reflects on the back of the water drop, and refracts again when it leaves the water drop. Total * * * refracts twice after one reflection. Water has a dispersive effect on light, and the refractive index of light with different wavelengths is different. The refractive index of red light is smaller than that of blue light, and the deflection angle of blue light is larger than that of red light.

Because the light is reflected in the water drop, the spectrum seen by the observer is reversed, with red light at the top and other colors at the bottom. So the heights of rainbows and neon lights are different, and the hierarchical order of colors is just the opposite. Rainbow means that light is refracted twice and reflected once, while neon means that light is refracted twice and reflected twice. ?

Baidu encyclopedia-rainbow