Now I know that rainbows are formed due to refraction of light from the sun hitting raindrops and light waves leave at varying angles between 40-42 degrees or somewhere around there. Also, that they’re round.

What I don’t understand is how it’s consistent, like I assume it’s hitting many raindrops, but all these drops are in different places so why does it still form a nice circle. Furthermore, why isn’t the whole sky a rainbow if it’s raining and thus hitting all the drops. I suspect the angle of the sun is playing a part but I’m not a science man.

Please help me get this thought out of my head.

  • @[email protected]OP
    3•5 months ago

    Thanks.

    I hadn’t considered the placement of the sun being behind me, but can confirm I was walking each when I saw a rainbow the other day, it was evening meaning the sun was setting in the west. So behind me.

    Also, the scratches on cars is a god damn revelation to me and something I had no idea about. I will be playing around with looking at these now so thanks for bringing that up.

    • @SwearingRobin
      2•5 months ago

      Happy to help! Now what I don’t get under this knowledge is double and triple rainbows. If anyone can explain that to me I would be very grateful.

      • @[email protected]OP
        1•5 months ago

        Sometimes the light reflects twice off the back of the raindrop; this leads to the secondary rainbow. The second reflection causes the order of the colors in the bow to reverse.

        This seems to be the how sourced from Here

        • @SwearingRobin
          1•5 months ago

          Thanks for the reply, it hasn’t fully clicked yet, but I’ll get there once I think about it some more.