0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
There are probably millions and millions of condensed water droplets. Why do we see only one (or two) rainbows?
Quote from: raghusesha on 22/08/2010 15:31:08 There are probably millions and millions of condensed water droplets. Why do we see only one (or two) rainbows?Has to be rain sized drops for a rainbow to form*,when the drops are much smaller, similar size to the wavelength of light, the reflection is white/grey, as in white/grey clouds.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mie_theory[* and the elevation of the sun has to be less than 42o]
Neither of the above are rainbows, the upper is a halo (caused by ice crystals), the multicoloured lower one is a corona.
Yes the source is a "corona" I was just equating a Rainbow like phenomina of sun's light reflection, moisture or ice crystalization in the atmosphere. The prisim affect presenting parts of the color spectrum. Dave's post tells it all.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow
Quote from: tommya300 on 22/08/2010 23:25:02Yes the source is a "corona" I was just equating a Rainbow like phenomina of sun's light reflection, moisture or ice crystalization in the atmosphere. The prisim affect presenting parts of the color spectrum. Dave's post tells it all.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RainbowThat type of corona is formed by diffraction/interference, rainbows are formed by refraction/dispersion:The mechanisms which produce the colours in corona and ranbows/prisms are not equivalent.
The mechanisms producing the colours, interference and dispersion, are completely different, I'd be stripped of one of my gold stars if I hadn't pointed that out []