What is a rainbow, and everything connected with it. A wonderful natural phenomenon - a rainbow-arc. In what shells of the earth does a rainbow occur?

RESEARCH WORK

Two people standing side by side see each their own rainbow! Because at every moment a rainbow is formed by the refraction of the sun's rays in more and more drops. Raindrops are falling. The place of the fallen drop is taken by another and manages to send its colored rays into the rainbow, followed by the next one and so on.

Prepared by: Yulia Polozova, Anastasia Stezhkina, Elena Khimina

Scientific supervisor: Olga Ivanovna Zaporozhtseva (physics teacher)

S. Losevo 2015

CONTENT

1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………….

2.What is a rainbow, history of research……………………………………………………………….

3. Rainbow in mythology and religion ………………………………………………………………………………………….

4.History of the study………………………………………………………………………………..

5.Physics of the rainbow…………………………………………………………………………………………

5.1.Where does a rainbow come from? Observation conditions……………………………………………………….

5.2.Why does a rainbow have the shape of an arc………………………………………………………..

5.3.Color of the rainbow and secondary rainbow………………………………………………………………

5.4.The cause of the rainbow is refraction and dispersion of light……………………………………………..

5.4.1.Newton’s experiments………………………………………………………………………………….

5.4.2. “Newton” in a drop………………………………………………………………………………………..

5.4.3. Scheme of rainbow formation ………………………………………………………………………………………

6.Unusual rainbows………………………………………………………………………………….

7.Rainbow and associated terms…………………………………………………………………………………

1. INTRODUCTION

Once, being in nature, we observed a rather beautiful phenomenon - a rainbow. The beauty of this phenomenon simply fascinated us. We came up with quite a few surveys, which we later formulated in our project.

Project goals:

Understand how a rainbow is formed.

Why does it always form at the same angle?

Why is the rainbow shaped like an arc?

Rainbow: main and side. What is the difference?

Why is the name of Isaac Newton associated with the rainbow in the scientific world?

And so our research began.

2. WHAT IS A RAINBOW

A rainbow is not an object at all, but an optical phenomenon. This phenomenon occurs due to the refraction of light rays in drops of water, and all this occurs exclusively during rain. That is, a rainbow is not an object, but just a play of light. But what a beautiful game, I must say!

In fact, the arc familiar to the human eye is only a part of a multi-colored circle. This is entirely a natural phenomenon can only be seen from the aircraft, and even then only with a sufficient degree of observation

The first studies of the shape of the rainbow were carried out in the 17th century by the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes. To do this, the scientist used a glass ball filled with water, which made it possible to imagine how a sunbeam is reflected in a raindrop, refracting and thereby becoming visible.

To remember the sequence of colors in the rainbow (or spectrum) there are special simple phrases - the first letters in them correspond to the first letters of the names of colors:

TO akABOUT onceAND and to -Z vonarG tinWITH brokeF onar.

TO everyABOUT hunterAND wantsZ natG deWITH goesF azan

Remember them - and you can easily draw a rainbow at any time!

The first person to explain the nature of the rainbow wasAristotle . He determined that "a rainbow is an optical phenomenon, not a material object."

An elementary explanation of the phenomenon of the rainbow was given back in 1611 by A. de Dominie in his work “De Radiis Visus et Lucis”, then developed by Descartes (“Les météores”, 1637) and fully developed by Newton in his “Optics” (1750) .

The rainbow from one drop is weak, and in nature it is impossible to see it separately, since there are many drops in the curtain of rain. The rainbow that we see in the sky is formed by myriads of drops. Each drop creates a series of nested colored funnels (or cones). But from an individual drop only one colored ray hits the rainbow. The observer's eye is the common point at which the colored rays from many drops intersect. For example, all red rays coming out of different drops, but at the same angle and entering the observer's eye, form a red arc of the rainbow. All orange and other colored rays also form arcs. That's why the rainbow is round.

3. RAINBOW IN MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION

People have long wondered about the nature of this most beautiful natural phenomenon. Humanity has associated the rainbow with many beliefs and legends. IN ancient greek mythology For example, a rainbow is the road between heaven and earth, along which the messenger between the world of the gods and the world of people, Iris, walked. In China, it was believed that the rainbow was a heavenly dragon, the union of Heaven and Earth. IN Slavic myths and in legends, the rainbow was considered a magical heavenly bridge, spanned from heaven to earth, a road along which angels descend from heaven to collect water from rivers. They pour this water into the clouds and from there it falls as life-giving rain.

Superstitious people believed that rainbows were a bad sign. They believed that the souls of the dead passed to the other world along a rainbow, and if a rainbow appeared, it meant someone’s imminent death.

Of course, since ancient times, people have tried to explain the rainbow. In Africa, for example, they believed that a rainbow was huge snake, which periodically crawls out of oblivion to carry out its dark deeds. However, intelligible explanations regarding this optical miracle could only be given towards the end of the seventeenth century. Then the famous Rene Descartes lived little by little. It was he who was first able to simulate the refraction of rays in a water drop. In his studies, Descartes used a glass ball filled with water. However, he could not fully explain the secret of the rainbow. But Newton, who replaced this very ball with a prism, managed to decompose a ray of light into a spectrum.

SUMMARY:

The rainbow is a bridge connecting (the world of people) and (the world of gods).

In ancient Indian - bow, god of thunder and lightning.

B is the road, messenger between the worlds of gods and people.

According to legends, the rainbow, like a snake, drinks water from lakes, rivers and seas, which then rains.

Hides a pot of gold in the place where the rainbow touched the ground.

According to legend, if you walk through a rainbow, you can change your gender.

The rainbow appeared later as a symbol of forgiveness for humanity, and is a symbol of the union (in Hebrew-Brit) of God and humanity (in the person of Noah) that there will never be a flood again. (Chapter Bereishit)

4. HISTORY OF RAINBOW RESEARCH

The Persian astronomer (1236-1311), and possibly his student (1260-1320), was apparently the first to give a fairly accurate explanation of the phenomenon.

The general physical picture of the rainbow was described in the book “De radiis visus et lucis in vitris perspectivis et iride”. Based on experimental observations, he came to the conclusion that a rainbow is produced as a result of reflection from the inner surface of a raindrop and double refraction - at the entrance to the drop and at the exit from it.

He gave a more complete explanation of the rainbow in the year in his work “Meteora” in the chapter “On the Rainbow”.

Although the multicolor spectrum of the rainbow is continuous, there are 7 colors in it. It is believed that the number 7 was chosen first, for which the number had a special meaning (for, or reasons). Moreover, initially he distinguished only five colors - red, yellow, green, blue and violet, which he wrote about in his Optics. But later, trying to create a correspondence between the number of colors of the spectrum and the number of fundamental tones of the musical scale, Newton added to the five listed There are two more colors in the spectrum.

5. PHYSICS OF RAINBOW

5.1. Where does a rainbow come from? Observation conditions

Rainbows can only be seen before or after rain. And only if, simultaneously with the rain, the sun breaks through the clouds, when the sun illuminates the veil of falling rain and the observer is between the sun and the rain. What happens? The sun's rays pass through raindrops. And each droplet works like a prism. That is, it decomposes the white light of the Sun into its components - the rays of red, orange, yellow, green, deep, blue and violet. Moreover, droplets deflect light of different colors in different ways, as a result of which white light decomposes into a multi-colored band, which is calledspectrum .

You can only see a rainbow if you are directly between the sun (it should be behind you) and the rain (it should be in front of you). Otherwise you won't see the rainbow!

Sometimes, very rarely, a rainbow is observed under the same conditions and when a rain cloud is illuminated by the moon. The same phenomenon of a rainbow is sometimes noticed when the sun illuminates water dust that is carried in the air near a fountain or waterfall. When the sun is covered with light clouds, the first rainbow sometimes seems completely uncolored and appears as a whitish arc, lighter than the background of the sky; such a rainbow is called white.

Observations of the phenomenon of the rainbow have shown that its arcs represent regular parts of circles, the center of which always lies on a line passing through the head of the observer and the sun; since in this way the center of the rainbow, with the sun high, lies below the horizon, the observer sees only a small part of the arc; at sunset and sunrise, when the sun is on the horizon, the rainbow appears as a half-arc of a circle. From the top of very high mountains, from hot air balloon you can see the rainbow in the form of most of the arc of a circle, since under these conditions the center of the rainbow is located above the visible horizon.

CONCLUSION: A rainbow appears only when suitable conditions are created for it. The sunshine should shine at your back, and the raindrops should fall somewhere ahead. (Since a rainbow needs bright light to form sunlight, this means that the rain has already moved on or has completely passed by, and you are facing it.)

5.2. Why does a rainbow have an arc shape?

Why is the rainbow semicircular? People have been asking this question for a long time. In some African myths, a rainbow is a snake that envelops the Earth in a ring. But now we know that a rainbow is an optical phenomenon - the result of the refraction of light rays in water droplets during rain. But why do we see a rainbow in the form of an arc, and not, for example, in the form of a vertical stripe of color?

Here the law of optical refraction comes into force, in which a ray, passing through a raindrop located in a certain position in space, undergoes 42-fold refraction and becomes visible to the human eye precisely in the shape of a circle. This is exactly the part of this circle that you are used to observing.

The shape of a rainbow is determined by the shape of the water droplets in which sunlight is refracted. And water droplets are more or less spherical (round). Passing through the drop and being refracted in it, a beam of white sunlight is transformed into a series of colored funnels, inserted one into the other, facing the observer. The outer funnel is red, orange, yellow are inserted into it, then green, etc., ending with the inner violet. Thus, each individual drop forms a whole rainbow.

Of course, a rainbow from one drop is weak, and in nature it is impossible to see it separately, since there are many drops in the curtain of rain. The rainbow that we see in the sky is formed by myriads of drops. Each drop creates a series of nested colored funnels (or cones). But from an individual drop only one colored ray hits the rainbow. The observer's eye is the common point at which the colored rays from many drops intersect. For example, all red rays coming out of different drops, but at the same angle and entering the observer's eye, form a red arc of the rainbow. All orange and other colored rays also form arcs. That's why the rainbow is round.

The rainbow is a huge curved spectrum. To an observer on earth, a rainbow usually looks like an arc - part of a circle, and the higher the observer is, the fuller the rainbow. From a mountain or an airplane you can see the full circle!

It is interesting to note that two people standing next to each other and observing a rainbow each see it differently! All this is due to the fact that at each individual moment of viewing, a rainbow is constantly formed in new drops of water. That is, one drop falls, and another appears in its place. Also, the type and color of the rainbow depends on the size of the water droplets. The larger the raindrops, the brighter the rainbow will be. The most saturated color in the rainbow is red. If the droplets are small, the rainbow will be wider with a pronounced orange color at the edge. It must be said that we perceive the longest wave of light as red, and the shortest as violet. This applies not only to cases of observing a rainbow, but to everything in general. That is, you can now looking smart comment on the condition, size and color of the rainbow, as well as all other objects visible to the human eye.

Two people standing side by side see each their own rainbow! Because at every moment a rainbow is formed by the refraction of the sun's rays in more and more drops. Raindrops are falling. The place of the fallen drop is taken by another and manages to send its colored rays into the rainbow, followed by the next one and so on.

The appearance of the rainbow also depends on the shape of the drops. When falling in the air, large drops flatten and lose their sphericity. The stronger the flattening of the drops, the smaller the radius of the rainbow they form.

There is a group of optical phenomena called halo. They are caused by the refraction of light rays by tiny ice crystals in cirrus clouds and fogs. Most often, halos form around the Sun or Moon. Here is an example of such a phenomenon - a spherical rainbow around the Sun:

In fact, a rainbow is not a semicircle, but a circle. We just don’t see it in full, because the center of the rainbow’s circle lies on the same straight line with our eyes. For example, from an airplane you can see a full, round rainbow, although this happens extremely rarely, because on airplanes they usually look at their beautiful neighbors, or eat hamburgers while playing AngryBirds. So why is a rainbow shaped like a semicircle? This is because the raindrops that form a rainbow are clumps of water with a rounded surface. The light coming out of this very drop reflects its surface. That's the whole secret.

CONCLUSION: The appearance of the rainbow also depends on the shape of the drops. When falling in the air, large drops flatten and lose their sphericity. The stronger the flattening of the drops, the smaller the radius of the rainbow they form. The arc of a rainbow is just a segment of the circle of light, in the center of the viewing sector of which is the observer, that is, you. And the higher you stand, the fuller the rainbow will be

The appearance of the rainbow - the width of the arcs, the presence, location and brightness of individual color tones, the position of additional arcs - very much depend on the size of the raindrops. The larger the raindrops, the narrower and brighter the rainbow turns out. Large drops are characterized by the presence of a rich red color in the main rainbow. Numerous additional arcs also have bright colors and are directly adjacent to the main rainbows, without gaps. The smaller the droplets, the wider and fainter the rainbow becomes, with an orange or yellow edge. The additional arcs are further apart from each other and from the main rainbows. Thus, by the appearance of the rainbow one can approximately estimate the size of the raindrops that formed this rainbow.

5.3. Rainbow coloring and secondary rainbow

The color of the rainbow ring is determined by the refraction of sunlight in spherical raindrops, their reflection from the surface of the drops, as well as diffraction (from the Latin diffractus - broken) and interference (from the Latin inter - mutually and ferio - hitting) reflected rays of different wavelengths.

Sometimes you can see another, less bright rainbow around the first one. This is a secondary rainbow, in which the light is reflected twice in the drop. In a secondary rainbow, the order of colors is “inverted” - purple is on the outside and red is on the inside:

The inner, most often visible arc is colored red on the outer edge and violet on the inner edge; Between them, in the usual order of the solar spectrum, lie the colors (red), orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. The second, less frequently observed arc lies above the first, is usually more weakly colored, and the order of the colors in it is reversed. The part of the sky inside the first arc usually seems very light, the part of the sky above the second arc seems less light, and the annular space between the arcs seems dark. Sometimes, in addition to these two main elements of the rainbow, additional arcs are observed, representing weak colored blurry stripes bordering the upper part of the inner edge of the first rainbow and, less often, the upper part of the outer edge of the second rainbow

Sometimes you can see another, less bright rainbow around the first one. This is a secondary rainbow, in which the light is reflected twice in the drop. In the secondary rainbow, the order of colors is “inverted” - the outside is , and the inside is red. The angular radius of the secondary rainbow is 50-53°. The sky between two rainbows usually has a noticeably darker hue.

In the mountains and other places where the air is very clean, you can observe a third rainbow (angular radius of about 60°).

The blurriness and blurriness of the colors of the rainbow is explained by the fact that the source of illumination is not a point, but an entire surface - the sun, and that individual sharper rainbows formed by individual points of the sun are superimposed on each other. If the sun shines through a veil of thin clouds, then the luminous source is the cloud surrounding the sun for 2 -3 ° and the individual color stripes overlap each other so much that the eye no longer distinguishes colors, but sees only a colorless light arc -white rainbow.

Since raindrops increase in size as they approach the ground, additional rainbows can be clearly visible only when light is refracted and reflected in high layers of the rain cover, i.e. at a low altitude of the sun and only at upper parts first and second rainbow. A complete theory of the white rainbow was given by Pörtner in 1897. The question has often been raised as to whether different observers see the same rainbow and whether a rainbow seen in the quiet mirror of a large reservoir of water is a reflection of a directly observed rainbow.

CONCLUSION: A rainbow occurs when the sun experiences water droplets slowly falling into. These droplets are different, as a result of which the light is decomposed into. It seems to us that a multi-colored glow emanates from space along concentric () lines. In this case, the source of bright light is always behind the observer. Later it was measured that it deviates by 137 30 minutes, and by 139°20’)

5.4.The cause of the rainbow is refraction and dispersion of light

Quite simply: Simply put, the appearance of a rainbow can be deduced into the following formula: light passing through raindrops is refracted. And it is refracted because water has a higher density than air. White color, as you know, consists of seven primary colors. It is quite clear that all colors have different wavelengths. And this is where the whole secret lies. When a ray of sunlight passes through a drop of water, it refracts each wave differently.

And now in more detail.

5.4.1. NEWTON'S EXPERIMENTS

Newton, while improving optical instruments, noticed that the image was colored rainbow around the edges. He was interested in this phenomenon. He began to explore it in more detail. Ordinary white light was passed through the prism, and on the screen a spectrum similar to the colors of the rainbow could be observed. At first Newton thought that it was the prism that colored White color. As a result of numerous experiments, it was possible to find out that the prism does not color, but separates the white color into a spectrum.

CONCLUSION: rays of different colors exit the prism at different angles.

5.4.2. “NEWTON” IN DROPS

When passing through raindrops, light is refracted (bent to the side) because water has a higher density than air. It is known that white color consists of seven primary colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. These colors have different wavelengths, and the drop refracts each wave to a different degree when a ray of sunlight passes through it. Thus, waves of different lengths and, therefore, colors come out of the drop in slightly different directions. What was at first a single beam of rays is now scattered into its own natural colors, each traveling its own path.

Colored rays, hitting the inner wall of the drop and bending even more, can even exit through the same side that they entered. And as a result, you see how the rainbow scattered its colors across the sky in an arc.

Each drop reflects all colors. But from your fixed position on the earth, you only perceive certain colors from certain drops. The drops reflect the colors red and orange most clearly, so they reach your eyes from the very top drops. Blue and violet are reflected less well, so you see them from drops located slightly lower. Yellow and green reflect the drops that are in the middle. Put all the colors together and you get a rainbow.

5.4.3. RAINBOW FORMATION SCHEME

1) spherical,

2) internal,

3) primary rainbow,

4) ,

5) secondary rainbow,

6) incoming light beam,

7) the course of rays during the formation of the primary rainbow,

8) the course of rays during the formation of a secondary rainbow,

9) observer, 10-12) area of ​​rainbow formation.

Most often observedprimary rainbow , in which light undergoes one internal reflection. The path of the rays is shown in the figure at the top right. In the primary rainbow it is located outside the arc, its angular angle is 40-42°.

EXPLANATION FROM THE POINT OF PHYSICS

Observations of the rainbow have shown that the angle formed by two lines mentally drawn from the observer’s eyes to the center of the rainbow arc and to its circumference, or the angular radius of the rainbow, is an approximately constant value and equal to about 41° for the first rainbow, and 52° for the second. An elementary explanation of the phenomenon of the rainbow was given back in 1611 by A. de Dominie in his work “De Radiis Visus et Lucis”, then developed by Descartes (“Les météores”, 1637) and fully developed by Newton in his “Optics” (1750) . According to this explanation, the phenomenon of a rainbow occurs due to the refraction and total internal reflection (see Dioptrics) of the sun's rays in raindrops. If a ray SA falls on a spherical drop of liquid, then it (Fig. 1), having undergone refraction in the direction AB, can be reflected from the rear surface of the drop in the direction BC and exit, refracted again, in the direction CD.

The beam, otherwise falling on the drop, can, however, at point C (Fig. 2) be reflected a second time along CD and exit, refracted, in the direction DE.

If not one ray falls on a drop, but a whole bunch of parallel rays, then, as is proven in optics, all the rays that have undergone one internal reflection in a drop of water will come out of the drop in the form of a diverging cone of rays (Fig. 3), the axis of which is located along the direction of the incident rays. In reality, the beam of rays emerging from the drop does not represent a regular cone, and even all its constituent rays do not intersect at one point, only for simplicity in the following drawings these beams are taken to be regular cones with their apex in the center of the drop

The angle of the cone opening depends on the refractive index (see Dioptrics) of the liquid, and since the refractive index for rays of different colors (different wavelengths) that make up a white solar ray is not the same, then the angle of the cone opening will be different for rays of different colors, namely for there will be fewer purple ones than for red ones. As a result, the cone will be bordered by a colored rainbow edge, red on the outside, purple on the inside, and, if the drop is water, then half of the corner hole of the coneSOR for red it will be about 42°, for purple (SOV ) 40.5°. A study of the distribution of light inside the cone shows that almost all the light is concentrated in this colored border of the cone and is extremely weak in its central parts; Thus, we can only consider the bright colored shell of the cone, since all its internal rays are too weak to be perceived by vision.

A similar study of rays reflected twice in a drop of water will show us that they will come out with the same conical irisV"R" (Fig. 3), but red from the inner edge, purple from the outer, and for a water drop half of the angular hole of the second cone will be equal to 50° for red (SOR" ) and 54° for the purple edge (SOV ) .

Let us now imagine that an observer whose eye is at the pointABOUT (fig. 4), looking at a row of vertical raindropsA, B , C, D, E... , illuminated by parallel rays of the sun going in the directionSA, SB, SC etc.; let all these drops be located in a plane passing through the eye of the observer and the sun; each such drop will, according to the previous one, emit two conical light shells, the common axis of which will be the sun ray incident on the drop.

Let the dropIN located so that one of the rays forming the inner shell of the first (inner) cone will, when continued, pass through the eye of the observer; then the observer will seeIN purple dot. Somewhat higher than a dropIN a drop C will be located such that a ray coming from the outer surface of the shell of the first cone will enter the eye and give it the impression of a red dot inWITH ; drops in betweenIN AndWITH, will give the impression of blue, green, yellow and orange dots in the eye. In total, the eye will see in this plane a vertical rainbow line with a purple end at the bottom and a red end at the top; if we pass throughABOUT and the sun lineSO, then the angle formed by it with the lineOB , will be equal to the half-hole of the first cone for violet rays, i.e. 40.5°, and the angleCBS will be equal to the half-hole of the first cone for red rays, i.e. 42°. If you turn the cornerKOV aroundOK, ThatOB will describe a conical surface and each drop lying on the circle of intersection of this surface with the rain cover will give the impression of a light purple point, and all the points together will give a purple arc of a circle with a center atTO ; in the same way, red and intermediate arcs are formed, and in total the eye will receive the impression of a light rainbow arc, violet inside, red outside -first rainbow.

Applying the same reasoning to the second outer light conical shell emitted by drops and formed by solar rays reflected twice in a drop, we obtain a widersecond concentricrainbow with angleCFU, equal for the inner red edge - 50°, and for the outer purple edge - 54°. Due to the double reflection of light in the drops that produce this second rainbow, it will be significantly less bright than the first. DropsD, lying betweenWITH AndE, do not emit light at all into the eye, and therefore the space between two rainbows will appear dark; from the drops lying belowIN and higherE, white rays emanating from the central parts of the cones and therefore very weak will enter the eye; this explains why the space under the first and above the second rainbow appears dimly lit to us.

CONCLUSION:The elementary theory of the rainbow obviously indicates that different observers see rainbows formed by different raindrops, that is, different rainbows, and that the apparent reflection of a rainbow is the rainbow that would be seen by an observer placed under a reflecting surface at such a distance from it downwards, what he is above her. Observed in rare cases, especially at sea, intersecting eccentric rainbows are explained by the reflection of light from the water surface behind the observer and, thus, the appearance of two light sources (the sun and its reflection), each giving its own rainbow.- does not perceive). Therefore, the lunar rainbow looks whitish; but the brighter the light, the more "colorful" the rainbow will be, because in humans, bright light turns on the perception of color receptors -.

The center of the circle that a rainbow describes always lies on a straight line passing through (the Moon) and the observer’s eye, that is, it is impossible to see the sun and a rainbow at the same time without using mirrors. For an observer on the ground, it usually looks like part of a circle; the higher the point of view, the fuller the rainbow - from a mountain or an airplane you can see the whole .

A simple rainbow-arc is usually observed, but under certain circumstances you can see a double rainbow, and from an airplane - an inverted or even ring rainbow.

Ring Rainbow July 10, 2005

rainbow in the forest rainbow from the plane

rainbow in the clouds rainbow over the sea

We are used to seeing a rainbow as an arc. In fact, this arc is only part of a multi-colored circle. This natural phenomenon can only be observed at high altitudes, for example, from an airplane.

There is a group of optical phenomena called halo. They are caused by the refraction of light rays by tiny ice crystals in cirrus clouds and fogs. Most often, halos form around the Sun or Moon. Here is an example of such a phenomenon - a spherical rainbow around the Sun: Iris resembles sectors of a rainbow

The rainbow also appears in many folk superstitions related to weather prediction. For example, a rainbow that is tall and steep predicts good weather, while a rainbow that is low and flat predicts bad weather.

8. LITERATURE USED

Rainbow - this magnificent colorful phenomenon has long captured the imagination of people. Looking at a rainbow, you want to believe in miracles and magic. Which natural phenomenon can compare in beauty with a rainbow? The appearance of a rainbow in the sky means that it will soon come good weather and the bad weather came to an end. There are many legends about the rainbow, which you will learn about from this article. We will also try to understand in more detail the reasons for the appearance of this wonderful natural phenomenon and learn about interesting facts about the rainbow. Read the article, ask questions and share your impressions in the comments.

In the ancient Indian epic “Romayana” we find the expression “the seven-colored bow of the Thunderer.” Thunderer is the supreme god, the king of kings Indra. The ancient Greeks saw the rainbow as a mediator between heaven and earth, that is, between gods and people. They identified the rainbow with the beautiful Iris and depicted her dressed in silk, which intersected with all seven colors. Iris's indispensable attribute was golden wings. They symbolized her fickle nature: after all, a rainbow always appears and disappears unexpectedly.

The Arabs believed that the rainbow was the bow of the god of light Kuzakh. After a grueling struggle with the forces of darkness that sought to prevent the sun from appearing in the sky, Kuzakh invariably emerged victorious and hung a rainbow bow on the clouds. Since ancient times, the Slavs considered a rainbow after heavy rain to be a harbinger of the victory won by the god Perun over the spirit of evil.

Thunder and lightning alone are not enough to create a rainbow. If the sky is covered with clouds, and there is no shadow on the ground, the rainbow cannot be seen. And only when the sun breaks through the layers of clouds are the conditions created for its appearance. Beautiful! Changeable and elusive!

Explaining the appearance of a rainbow in the sky from a theoretical point of view is not particularly difficult. This is elementary optics. How do rain and sun draw a rainbow!?

As you know, light consists of a combination of several colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, cyan and violet. White light passing through the prism is reflected on the other side with all the colors of the rainbow. But in order to understand what a rainbow is, you need to understand what happens inside the prism and how white light emits so many colors.

A prism is a trihedron, usually made of transparent glass or plastic. A prism "draws" a mini-rainbow by decomposing complex light into a spectrum when a narrow strip of white light hits one of the triangle's faces. The scattering of light in a prism occurs due to the so-called "refractive index" of the glass. Each material has its own distinctive refractive index. When light travels through a material (such as light traveling through air and hitting a glass prism), the difference in refractive indices between air and glass causes the light to bend. The bending angle is different from the wavelength of the light. And as white light passes through the two planes of the prism, the different colors are bent (refracted) and a kind of rainbow appears. The rainbow itself is created by raindrops acting as tiny prisms. Light enters a raindrop, reflects off the other side of the raindrop, and exits. During this process, light is decomposed into a spectrum, just as it happens in a transparent triangular prism. The angle between the incoming light beam and the outgoing light beam is 42 degrees for red and 40 degrees for violet. Due to the difference in bending angles, a rounded rim appears on the sky, i.e. rainbow. Sometimes two rainbows may appear at once. A second rainbow can form because some raindrops can be reflected twice at once. In order for two reflections to occur simultaneously, droplets of a certain size are needed. The basic process of creating a rainbow is the refraction (refraction) or “bending” of light. Light bends, or rather changes its direction, when it moves from one environment to another. Rainbows are created by light moving from at different speeds into different environments.

So, the bend of a ray of light falls into a transparent prism. One side of the light wave is slightly slower than the other, so the beam passes through the air-glass interface at a different angle (essentially the beam of light is reflected from the surface of the prism). The light turns again when it leaves the prism because one side of the light is moving faster than the other. In addition to the process of bending light itself, the prism separates white light into its component colors. Each color of white light has its own characteristic frequency, causing the colors to travel at different speeds as they pass through the prism.

The color that is slowly refracted in the glass bends more when it gets from the air into the prism, because in different environments color moves at different speeds. The color moving faster in the glass does not weaken significantly, so it does not bend as much. Due to this, all the colors of the rainbow that make up white light are separated by frequency when passing through the glass. If glass refracts light twice, as a prism does, a person can see all the separated colors of white light much better. This is called scattering. Raindrops can refract and scatter light just as they do inside a prism. Under certain conditions, as a result of such refraction of light, a rainbow appears in the sky. Each drop is unique: the drop has a completely different size and consistency compared to a glass prism. When white sunlight penetrates a few raindrops at a certain angle, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet colors appear in the sky, i.e. rainbow. Rounding out the rainbow are red and purple and the visible light spectrum.

As light passes through air into a drop of water, the constituent colors of white light begin to scatter, with the speed of each color depending on their frequency. The violet color reflected in the drop is refracted at an obtuse angle, and the red color at an acute angle. WITH right side drops, some light escapes into the air, and the rest is reflected back. Some reflected light comes out from the left side of the drop, and refraction occurs again as the light moves toward the air.

Thus, each drop scatters white sunlight into its component colors. But why do we see wide bands of color, as if each rainy area is scattering only one specific color? This is because we only see the color that comes from each drop. When, for example, drop A scatters white light, at a certain angle only one red light comes out, visible to our eye. Other color rays are refracted at a different angle, so we don't see them. Sunlight penetrates the falling drops equally, so all the nearest drops emit red light. The speed of drop B across the sky is slightly lower, so it will no longer be able to emit red light. But since all other colors have a smaller wavelength, drop B in this case will emit orange and all other colors of the rainbow in descending order. The last color to close the rainbow is violet with the smallest wave of glow. If you look at a rainbow from above, you can see a whole circle consisting of seven thin circles of different colors. From the ground, we can only see the arch of the rainbow appearing on the horizon. Sometimes two rainbows appear in the sky at once, one of which has a clear outline, while the other looks like a blurry reflection of the first. A dim rainbow is formed according to the same principle as a clear one, however, in this case, the light is reflected from the surface inside the droplet not once, but twice. As a result of this double reflection, the light exits the drop at a different angle, so the second rainbow appears slightly higher. If you look closely, you will notice that the colors in the second rainbow are reflected in reverse order compared to the first rainbow. As a result of such refraction of light and scattering of rays, a rainbow appears. Habitual for us sunlight and water together create a new work of art, presented to us by mother nature.

Brilliant with bright, magnificent colors, the rainbow amazed the poetic imagination of primitive peoples. It either stretches above the ground, or sparkles in the very garden of Iria, where birds of paradise and winged souls rest on it.

A special, divine character was recognized behind the rainbow, as well as behind all the luminaries, therefore, just as in nature the rainbow is on the verge between a thunderstorm and sunlight, so in folk tales it is in connection with the god of thunder and lightning Perun and the bright goddess Lada, one from the names of which, by the way, is Perunitsa the Thunderer. In legends, the rainbow is compared to a wide variety of objects.

Since ancient times, the Slavs have believed that the rainbow “drinks” water from lakes, rivers and seas: like a snake, dipping its sting into the water, it draws water into itself, and then releases it, which is why it rains; At the ends of the rainbow a pot of ancient gold coins is hung. The legend depicts three deities, one of whom holds a rainbow and raises water from the river with it, another creates clouds from this water, and the third, breaking them, causes rain. This is like a triune embodiment of Perun.

The Western Slavs have a belief that a witch can steal a rainbow and hide it, which means causing a drought on the earth.

There are also such beliefs: a rainbow is a bridge between heaven and earth; or the belt of the goddess Lada; or the path to the next world, along it the souls of the dead sometimes come to the sinful earth. This is a symbol of abundance, and if the rainbow does not appear for a long time, one should expect famine and crop failure.

In some places they believed that the rainbow was a shiny rocker with the help of which Lada Perunitsa draws water from the sea-ocean, and then irrigates fields and fields with it. This wonderful rocker is kept in the sky, and at night - in the constellation Ursa Major. Riddles about the rainbow also retained its likeness to a rocker and buckets of water: “Two seas hang on an arc,” “A multi-colored rocker hangs over a river.”

Serbs, Macedonians, Bulgarians and Western Ukrainians believe that those who pass under the rainbow change their gender. In western Bulgaria they believed that “if someone wants to change his gender, he must go to the river during the rain and where the rainbow “drinks water”, in the same place he must drink, and then he will turn from a man into a woman and from a woman to a man." This property of the rainbow can be used to magically change the gender of the unborn child. "If a woman who has given birth to only girls goes to drink water in the place where the rainbow “drinks,” then after that she will have boys will be born."

In Bulgaria, there is also the idea that the rainbow is “the belt of the Lord, which he rinses during the rain or dries after the rain.” At the same time, the rainbow is also called the “samovil belt.” Serbs and Croats say that God uses the rainbow to show women how to weave and what colors to use.

IN Ancient India the rainbow is the bow of Indra, the thunder god; in addition, in Hinduism and Buddhism, the “rainbow body” is the highest yogic state attainable in the realm of samsara.

In Islam, the rainbow consists of four colors - red, yellow, green and blue, corresponding to the four elements. In some African myths, a celestial serpent is identified with a rainbow, which serves as a guardian of treasures or envelops the Earth in a ring. American Indians They identify the rainbow with a ladder along which one can climb to another world. Among the Incas, the rainbow was associated with the sacred Sun, and the Inca rulers wore its image on their coats of arms and emblems. Among the Chibcha-Muisca Indians, the rainbow was considered a good deity. In the specific mountain conditions of the Cordillera, an amazing natural phenomenon is observed: against the background of a foggy haze, a rainbow sometimes appears, as if framing a many times enlarged reflection of the observer himself. The main sanctuary dedicated to the goddess of the Rainbow, Chibcha, was erected next to the Tekendama mountain waterfall, where the brightest arc always lights up as soon as the rays of the sun hit the water splashes. In Scandinavian mythology, "Bivrest" ("shaking road", "trembling path") is a rainbow bridge connecting heaven and earth. He is guarded by the guardian of the gods, Heimdall. Before the end of the world and the death of the gods, the bridge collapses. IN Ancient Greece the goddess of the rainbow was the virgin Iris, the messenger of the gods, the daughter of Thaumant and the oceanid Electra, the sister of the harpies. She was depicted with wings and a caduceus. Her robe is made up of dew drops shimmering with the colors of the rainbow. According to the ancients, the rainbow connected heaven and earth, therefore, with the development of Olympic mythology, Iris was considered a mediator between gods and people. Unlike Hermes, Iris carried out the orders of Zeus and Hera without showing her own initiative. The canonical image of Iris is a winged maiden (usually sitting next to Hera), holding a vessel of water, with which she delivered water to the clouds.

According to the Bible, the rainbow was created by God after the great flood, as a sign of his promise to never send a flood to people again. In the Talmudic tradition, the rainbow was created by God on the sixth day of creation. For the Greeks, the rainbow is a manifestation of the goddess Iris. In medieval Christian images, Christ on the Day of Judgment appears seated on a rainbow. The rainbow is also associated with the Virgin Mary, the mediator between God and people. The symbolism of the rainbow depends on the number of colors in it.
So in China, there are five colors in the rainbow, the combination of which represents the unity of ying and yang. Based on the Aristotelian triad, the Christian West sees in it only three (symbol of the Trinity) primary colors: blue (the heavenly nature of Christ), red (the passion of Christ) and green (the mission of Christ on earth).
The rainbow is an image of peaceful heavenly fire, in contrast to lightning as an expression of anger heavenly powers. The appearance of a rainbow after a thunderstorm, against the backdrop of peaceful nature, together with the sun, made it possible to interpret it as a symbol of peace. In the Bible, a rainbow appears (in the episode with Noah's Ark) as a sign that the water will no longer be a flood; in general it is seen as a symbol of the covenant made between Yahweh and people. The hemisphere of the rainbow was considered a sphere (the other half of which is supposedly immersed in the ocean), which
emphasized the divine perfection of this natural phenomenon. According to a common interpretation, the red color of the rainbow represents the wrath of God, yellow - generosity, green - hope, blue - pacification of natural forces, purple - greatness.

In the sky the rainbow shines and sparkles,
It’s as if the passage through it is open to us.
A multi-colored ray descended from the sky,
The forest shines in the beautiful rainbow dust.

The foliage shimmers like emerald,
Reflections of the rainbow are visible here and there,
The forest plunged into a fairy tale and fell silent,
He wants to hold on to the wonderful moment.

Science has long explained everything to us,
But it is not possible to fully understand nature.
Seeing a rainbow in the blue sky,
We dream that these are symbols from the outside.

Delight takes us into a sky-high flight,
Perhaps the answer to a miracle awaits there.
The rainbow is shining for us, fresh and good,
The bright colors make your eyes glow with happiness.

February 17, 2013 at 15:39:17| Categories: Nature , Photo , Other

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Rainbow is one of the most magical and beautiful phenomena that we can observe in nature. When we were children, she would mesmerize us with her miraculous appearance literally out of nowhere and bright colors. It is so mysterious, but science has studied this phenomenon quite well. If you want to teach your children all about rainbows, you should read this article.

What is a rainbow?

A rainbow is a special phenomenon that occurs in nature when it is rainy on one side and sunny on the other. It consists of an arc that forms seven colors in the sky, namely violet, green, blue, orange, yellow, blue and red.

Remember the saying: “Every Hunter Wants to Know Where the Pheasant Sits”? Each word in this phrase begins with a letter representing one of the colors. Learn it with your children, they will find it very interesting. So, when sunlight, refracted, passes through tiny raindrops, a rainbow appears.

What is the mechanism of this phenomenon?

A simple explanation for the appearance of rainbows in the sky is that we usually see sunlight. White light that hits our planet from a huge star solar system- in fact, after which the system is named. Of course, this is the Sun. This light is made up of different colors, but as long as it moves in one direction, it appears white.

However, when it rains, millions of droplets cause the colors in white light to separate and refract through them. Each raindrop actually creates its own rainbow, but when there are many of them, the rainbow becomes large enough that we can see it with the naked eye.

Here are some interesting facts about rainbows:

We told you everything we knew about this phenomenon. Now you are armed with all sorts of interesting facts and are ready for any children's questions about rainbows. Even the trickiest ones.

We have all seen a multi-colored arc appear in the sky. But what is a rainbow? How is this miraculous phenomenon formed? The mystery of the nature of the rainbow has always fascinated humanity, and people tried to find an explanation for what was happening with the help of legends and myths. Today we will talk exactly about this. What is a rainbow and how is it formed?

Myths

Everyone knows that ancient people were inclined to deify and mystify most natural phenomena, be it thunder and lightning or an earthquake. They didn't ignore the rainbow either. What do we know from our ancestors? What is a rainbow and how is it made?

• The ancient Vikings believed that the rainbow was the Bifrost Bridge, connecting the land of the people of Mitgard and the gods (Asgard).
• Indians believed that the rainbow was a bow belonging to the thunder god Indra.
• The Greeks did not go far from their contemporaries and also considered the rainbow to be the dear messenger of the gods Iris.
• The Armenians decided that this was not a natural phenomenon, but the belt of the Sun God (but without making a decision, they changed the “specialty” of God and “forced” him to be responsible for art and science).
• The Australians went further and animated the rainbow, making it the patron serpent of water.
• According to African myths, where the rainbow touches the ground, treasure can be found.
• It's interesting what Africans and Irish have in common, because their Leprechaun also hides a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

We could list for a long time the myths and legends of peoples from all over the world, and we would find something interesting for everyone. But what is a rainbow really?

Story

The first conscious and close to reality conclusions on the atmospheric phenomenon we are considering were given by Aristotle. It was just a guess, but he became the first person to take the rainbow from mythology to the real world. Aristotle hypothesized that a rainbow is not an object or substance, and not even a real object, but simply a visual effect, an image, akin to a mirage in the desert.

However, the first Scientific research and the justification was carried out by the Arab astronomer Qutb ad-Din al-Shirazi. At the same time, similar studies were carried out by German researchers.

In 1611, the first physical theory of the rainbow was created. Mark Antony de Dominis, based on observations and experiments, came to the conclusion that rainbows are formed due to the refraction of light in drops of water contained in the atmosphere in rainy weather. To be more precise, he described the complete picture of the formation of a rainbow due to the double refraction of light at the entrance and exit from a drop of water.

Physics

So what is a rainbow, the definition of which was given by Aristotle? How is it formed? Probably everyone has heard about the existence of infrared and ultraviolet radiation? This is the “light” that comes from any material objects in different measurement ranges.

So, sunlight consists of rays with different wavelengths and includes all types of radiation from “warm” red to “cold” violet. When passing through water drops, the light is divided into rays with different wavelengths (and different colors), and this happens twice, when it enters the water, the beam is divided and slightly deviates from its trajectory, and when it exits, it deviates even more, as a result of which a rainbow can be seen with the naked eye.

For children

Of course, anyone who graduated from school with at least a C grade will tell you about the rainbow. But what to do if a child comes up to the parent and asks: "Mom, what is a rainbow? Where does it come from?" The easiest way to explain it is this: Sun rays ki, passing through the rain, shimmer." In younger age children do not need to know the physical background of the phenomenon.

Everyone knows the colors of the rainbow have a strict order and always the same sequence. As we have already found out, this is the result of physical processes. However, for some reason, many adults (parents, kindergarten teachers) require children to know correct order arrangement of colors in the rainbow. For faster memorization, expressions were invented in which the first letters of words symbolize a certain color. Here are the most famous forms:

As you can see, you can track the correct order of colors by the first letter (red-orange-yellow-green-cyan-blue-violet). By the way, Isaac Newton did not distinguish blue and indigo, but blue and indigo, respectively. Why the color names were changed remains a mystery. In general, is it really so important to know what a rainbow is in order to admire it?

A colored rainbow does not exist because it is just an illusion that only appears to us. As far as scientists know, not a single one Living being in the world, except for humans, it is not possible to see it. And yet it exists.

It is seen by people living on one side or another the globe, on islands or continents, on the ground or flying in the air. A bright, colorful rainbow appears before the eyes of enthusiastic spectators, when small drops of rain are still falling on the ground, and the sun is behind them - and creates an amazing picture, giving everyone joy. That’s why they called it that way – a rainbow.

Since ancient times, humanity has been thinking about the nature of this phenomenon and why rainbows and rain are so connected with each other. Therefore, it is not surprising that a huge number of different stories and legends are associated with it, most of which are extremely optimistic.

In the Old Testament. God gave people this amazing phenomenon as a symbol of the inviolability of His Word. And He promised Noah and his family that people would never see a global flood again.

For the ancient Greeks. According to ancient Greek myths, the messenger of the gods, Iris, descended to people along a rainbow from heaven to earth.

Among the ancient Chinese. For the Chinese, the rainbow was a heavenly dragon, which meant the unity of Heaven and Earth.

Among the ancient Slavs. Our ancestors believed that this amazing phenomenon serves as a magical bridge. Angels descend along it, collect water from the rivers, and then pour it into the clouds - after which they irrigate everything around with life-giving rain. Here, rainbows and rain are closely interrelated.

Rainbow for the superstitious. Interestingly, not everyone thought that the appearance of this amazing phenomenon nature - for good. Some believed that the appearance of a rainbow brings bad luck. If only because the souls of dead people pass through it to the kingdom of the dead, which means that its appearance signals someone's imminent death.

Rainbow and folk signs. Naturally, folk signs also could not get around this atmospheric phenomenon side - people, focusing on it, tried to predict the weather. For example, if the rainbow was located high and was more curved, it means that the weather will be good, but if the multi-colored arc was located low and turned out to be stretched, you can prepare for bad weather.

What an enchanting sight it is

It will be interesting to know that this amazing phenomenon can be observed not only during the day, but also at night, in cirrus clouds and even during fog. At the same time, from the ground it appears to us in the form of an arch. And it can be seen in its entirety only when, at the time of its appearance, we are in an airplane, helicopter, airplane or on a high, high mountain.

Then it will turn out that in fact the rainbow has an absolutely round shape, since it is completely difficult to see it earth's surface. And all because a drop, having a spherical shape and illuminated by a beam of parallel sunlight, can only create a circle.

Solar

The solar rainbow is the brightest of them all and it is the one we see most often. It consists of a huge number of flowers. It is quite easy to remember the main shades of this phenomenon, since many poems and sayings were invented specifically for this purpose, in the first letters of which the colors of the rainbow are encrypted:

1. Each is Red (primary, it cannot be obtained by mixing colors);
2. Hunter - Orange (optional - can be obtained by mixing primary colors);
3. Desires – Yellow (main);
4. Noble – Green (optional);
5. Where – Blue (optional);
6. Sitting – Blue (primary);
7. Pheasant – Purple (optional).

Despite the fact that we believe that we see only these seven colors of the rainbow, in fact, the spectrum is absolutely continuous - and our eye distinguishes more than one hundred and fifty shades. And all because there is no clear line between these colors - and the same color (white) smoothly passes into another through all shades.

Lunar

Theoretically, lunar rainbows can be seen everywhere. But in practice, it is most often observed by residents of rainy areas or those living near large waterfalls.

It is not as bright as the sun; you can see it on the opposite side of the sky from the Moon during the full moon (give or take a few nights).

The night star should be low above the horizon, the sky should be almost black and, of course, it should be drizzling on the other side of the Moon. There are even parallels: rain and rainbow (if it rains, then it is quite likely to see a rainbow), rainbow and rain (if a rainbow appears, then the weather may change).

The colors of the lunar rainbow are not easy to see - its light is too weak for our eyes. Therefore, if we are lucky enough to notice it with our eyes unaided by the latest technology, we will only see a white arc.

Foggy

Sometimes a mist rainbow is confused with a lunar rainbow because it usually looks like a bright, shining, wide white arch. WITH inside it may be slightly purple, with the outside orange.

It can be seen when the sun's rays find themselves in a faint fog, which consists of tiny water droplets (25 microns) that refract and scatter white light. The smaller they are, the whiter the rainbow, since the light beams in this case mix, first become faded, and then become completely discolored.

Fiery

A fire rainbow is an extremely rare phenomenon. It is absolutely horizontal and looks out from under the cirrus clouds, which are located at a huge altitude - 8-9 km above sea level.

It can only be observed from the ground, while the daylight must be at an angle exceeding 58°, and cirrus clouds, which consist of hexagonal ice crystals and are horizontal at this moment (so that the rays of the Sun can be freely refracted), must be floating in the sky.

Inverted

An inverted rainbow is an equally rare natural phenomenon. Cirrus clouds are also needed for its appearance. Only the ice crystals must line up at the right degree so that the sun's white rays can decompose into different colors and be reflected in the sky.

Appearance

A bright, multi-colored arch usually appears either before or after rain, since rainbows and rain are associated with each other. In this case, the sun's (moon's) rays must penetrate through the clouds, the luminary is behind the person's back, and the drizzling rain is in front. If a rainbow appears in the morning or evening (when the Sun is close to the horizon), then it will be big size, if during the day (the luminary stands high) - small.

Why exactly this natural phenomenon occurs was first explained by Descartes at the beginning of the 17th century. In his time, they still knew nothing about the fact that white could disintegrate into different colors. Because of this, the scientist’s rainbow turned out to be snow-white.

Newton colored it, discovering dispersion and explaining this natural process.

Briefly speaking about this phenomenon, it can be explained as an optical phenomenon that occurs when the rays of the heavenly body are refracted and reflected in a huge number (often reaching a million) of raindrops, and then rain and rainbows are visible to the human eye.

1. White rays pass through rain (or fog) drops.
2. Each droplet is a kind of prism (a body made of a transparent substance, bounded by two non-parallel planes, due to which light is refracted).
3. This prism has excellent optical properties, so it successfully splits white light into the colors of which it consists, thereby forming a beam of diverging multi-colored rays. Thus, it can be argued that each individual drop of water is a kind of small rainbow.
4. Multi-colored rays emerge from the prism at different angles (here it is worth remembering that the surface of the drop is curved). For example, the angle of red is 137°30’, purple is 139°20’, and the rest are in between. The color is also affected by the wavelength of light - red has the longest wavelength, violet has the shortest.
5. As a result of this, the white color, which contains absolutely all colors except black, completely disintegrates and forms a multi-colored stripe.
6. Quite often, near one rainbow you can often notice a second one, or even several, although not as bright as the main one. These are secondary rainbows, which can be seen when the light in one droplet is reflected twice. The colors in such arches are placed in reverse - purple on top, red in the middle.

If someone is constantly unlucky and can almost never see this natural phenomenon With your own eyes, you shouldn’t despair, because everyone can easily create a rainbow on their own. This is where the question arises: how to make a rainbow.

Option 1. The simplest

Take a glass prism, a sheet of white paper and go out into the Sun. Turn your back to it and place the prism so that the light falls through it onto the sheet. Rainbow is ready! By bringing the prism closer and further away from the paper, you can increase or decrease the multi-colored miracle.

Option 2. With water-1

In this case, the prism will be a glass of water, three-quarters full. Then you need to act as in the first option. The result is rain and rainbows.

Option 2. With water-2

Take a bowl, fill it with water, find a white sheet of paper and a small mirror. Place the bowl in the sun, lower the mirror into the water, lean it against the edge of the dish and turn it so that the light rays fall on it. After this, you need to move a sheet of paper along the bowl in search of a place where a rainbow will be displayed on it.

Option 3. With CD

It is quite possible to see a rainbow using a disk. This is due to the fact that its surface has a huge number of grooves that act as small prisms.

You need to go to a lit window, close it with a curtain so that there is a small gap for light rays. Take the disk and place it so that sunlight hits it, after which you need to reflect the beam using the disk onto the cardboard. If you tilt the disk in different directions, you can get both a rainbow stripe and a circular rainbow. If you use a flashlight instead of the Sun, the colors of the rainbow will appear less saturated.

Option 4. For extreme sports enthusiasts who like to quarrel with neighbors and make repairs

This experiment will feature both rainbows and rain. In the largest room, install a 500-watt flashlight and turn it on. Take a garden hose, run water to the lantern, attach a garden watering gun to the hose and set it to spray. Turn on the water, then move the gun closer to the lantern, but do not flood it. In a few minutes you will have not only rainbows and rain, but spectators - neighbors from below, who will definitely appreciate your resourcefulness!