How does light refraction cause rainbows and mirages?

Light changes direction when it moves from one material to another, this is called refraction. It's like how a straw in a glass of water looks bent even though it’s straight.

Rainbows are like a rainbow-colored lens in the sky. When sunlight hits tiny drops of water, the light bends as it goes in and out of the drop. Each color bends just slightly differently, so they spread apart, red on top, violet at the bottom. That’s why we see rainbow colors after rain or near a sprinkler.

Mirages are like when you’re walking on a hot road and it looks wet, like there's water on the road. It's actually hot air making the light bend. The hot air is less dense, so light from the sky bends up toward your eyes, tricking you into thinking there’s water below.

Sometimes mirages make distant objects look closer or even floating in the air, just like how a fish in a pond looks closer to the surface than it really is! Light changes direction when it moves from one material to another, this is called refraction. It's like how a straw in a glass of water looks bent even though it’s straight.