What Causes a Rainbow to Appear After the Rain?

Rainbows appear after the rain because sunlight bounces off water droplets in the air. Imagine you're outside, and it just stopped raining. The sun comes out, and suddenly, a rainbow appears! It's like light is playing hide-and-seek with the raindrops. Each drop bends and splits the white light into colors, and that’s how we see red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet in order.

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Examples

  1. After a summer storm, you see a rainbow across the sky while playing outside.
  2. A child sees a rainbow on the sidewalk after rain has washed it clean.
  3. You spot a rainbow in the park after a brief shower.

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Categories: Physics · Optics· Light· Weather Phenomena · Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.