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.

  • @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.