Unraveling the magic: The beauty and science behind rainbows

By Haridya Sharma

One day after heavy rain, I looked at the sky and wondered who made this beautiful and perfect painting in the sky?  I was already well aware of the colours of the Rainbow in school but how these colours are formed was new to me. Then I became more curious to learn about the rainbow and I came to know that white light and sunlight are not just what we see. It’s made up of seven colours and when the sunlight passes through the small droplets of water in the air, it gets shattered and all the colours of light show up beautifully in the sky. 

This is called dispersion of light where the sunlight is scattered by water droplets. A Rainbow is formed in the part of the sky opposite to the sun. The colours of the rainbow are Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet which is called VIBGYOR. 

But do you know, that a rainbow is not only made in the sky? It is also formed around the water fountains due to the same reason of light passing through water droplets. We can also see the colours of light by doing a simple fun activity. 

Place a clean and transparent plastic scale in a position where sunlight passes through it. Then you will notice the whole set of colours coming through it. You can try moving the scale a bit to watch the colours clearly. How amazing is that a simple light which we think is either white or bright is full of colours inside? But watching a rainbow in the sky is a sight beyond comparison.