• Question: Are rainbows just a figment of your imagination or are they actaully something which you can touch? because they always move they never stay in the same place?

    Asked by jasanni to David, Luna, Mark, Melanie, Probash on 24 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Probash Chowdhury

      Probash Chowdhury answered on 24 Mar 2011:

      They can not be touched. They are an optical illusion. When the sun light shines through the rain drops at the correct angle, the rain drop acts like a prism and separates the colours causing the rainbow. It keeps moving because the sun and rain are constantly moving.

    • Photo: David Pyle

      David Pyle answered on 24 Mar 2011:

      They are an optical illusion – and no you’ll never touch one! The centre of the bow will always be an extension of a line from the sun through your head, as what you see is the effect of light being refracted back to you from the water droplets. I wrote a similar answer a couple of days ago, if you can find it!

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