Long ago, people thought rainbows were magic. Some people believed a rainbow was a bridge that appeared in the sky when the gods wanted to leave heaven and visit the earth. Other people believed that if you could find the end of the rainbow – where it touched the earth – you would find a pot of gold.
Today we know that a rainbow is made by sunlight shining through drops of water. Sunlight looks white, but it is really made up of many colours. When sunlight enters a raindrop, it breaks up into lots and lots of colours, including violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. We see these colours in the rainbow. But because the colours blend, we usually see only four or five of them.
For you to see a rainbow during a rain shower, the sun must be behind you, and the rain must be somewhere in front of you. Rays of sunlight break up into colours as they reflect off many drops of falling rain. Together they make a shimmering, curved, colourful rainbow. If the rain is heavy, one or both ends of the rainbow may appear to touch the earth, many kilometres apart.
Some rainbows form when it isn’t raining. Sometimes small rainbows appear in waterfalls, in sprays of water from the sea, or in fountains where the water shoots high.
Picture Credit : Google