What a rainbow really is. Rainbow - a magical bridge between heaven and earth

After the rain happens
What half the sky closes.
colorful arc
Sunny…
(Rainbow)

Agree, the rainbow is the most beautiful natural phenomenon. Not often all conditions coincide in order to be able to see it. Why does a rainbow appear?

For it to occur, it must rain and the sun must shine at the same time. A rainbow appears only when the sun's rays penetrate the raindrops.

Spectrum concept

White sunlight, falling into a drop, is refracted and breaks up into 7 constituent colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. They're called spectrum and exit the drop in a strict sequence. The first letters of the following phrases help to remember it:

Each
Oh hunter
W els
Know
Where
Sits
Phazan!

How
Oh brave
Jean
Ringer
head
With beat
Flashlight!

Many small particles of water transform the sun's rays into a rainbow.

Interestingly, the rainbow has an arcuate shape only from the ground. When viewed from an airplane, it looks like a circle. Perhaps if people saw the rainbow first from above, and not from below, they would call it "rakrug".

Conditions for the appearance of a rainbow

This amazing phenomenon can be observed from the surface of the earth only when the sun is low on the horizon, during sunrise or sunset. Scientists have calculated: this happens when the rays of light fall on the drops at an angle of 42 °.

In this case, you need to stand with your back to the sun and face the rain. Rainbows also form at night in the moonlight, but against a dark sky, they are very difficult to distinguish. You can see small rainbows in sunny weather at a waterfall in the mountains, at a fountain in a city park or in a garden while watering plants.

Sometimes the rays of light that have passed inside the drop are reflected from it 2 or more times. Then 2 rainbows appear at once (the 3rd and subsequent ones, as a rule, are not distinguishable to the eye).

When illuminated sunbeams a light fog, consisting of tiny droplets, a white rainbow appears - a wide brilliant white arc, also called a foggy rainbow. At the same time, its inner side can be slightly painted purple, and the outer side can be orange.

warm May day
thunder drummer,
Like a hammer
Beats on the cloud:
Bom!..

A cloud of rain is pouring
The wind rubs paint

And draw - Ra,
And draw - Doo,
And draw - Gu,
RA-DU-GU!

/AT. Musatov/

Signs

The most common folk omens about the rainbow are as follows. If the rainbow is bright - bad weather. Green - for rain, yellow - for good weather, red - for heat, wind. The evening rainbow portends good weather, and the morning rainbow portends rainy. If the rainbow appears before the rain, the rain will stop, and if after, the rain will continue. Rainbow across the river - will good weather, and if the rainbow is along the river, then it will be heavy rain.

There is also a terrible belief: it is dangerous to swim on the water when a rainbow appears - it can be pulled into the sky.

All of us have repeatedly seen such an amazing and bewitching phenomenon of nature - a rainbow. How does it arise, due to which a huge seven-color arc appears in the sky? Let us consider in more detail the essence of the rainbow as an atmospheric and natural phenomenon.

What is a rainbow as a natural phenomenon?

Rainbow is one of the most beautiful natural phenomena, which is customary to observe after rain. A rainbow is visible after rain because the sun illuminates many water droplets in the Earth's atmospheric layer. The shape of the rainbow is a semicircle or arc, composed of seven colors of the spectrum - a multi-colored stripe. The higher the point of observation of the rainbow, the fuller and richer it is: for example, from the height of an airplane, you can even see the full circle that the rainbow describes. There is one natural pattern: when you observe a rainbow arc, the sun is always located behind you.

How and why does a rainbow appear?

A rainbow is primarily a physical phenomenon based on the interaction of light and water. Sunlight is refracted and reflected by water droplets that float in the atmosphere. Droplets reflect or deflect light differently. An observer who stands with his back to the sun (light source) sees a multi-colored glow in front of him. This is nothing but white light, decomposed into a spectrum of seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. But it should be noted that the rainbow, like many physical phenomena, there is a feature: seven colors are nothing but an optical illusion, in fact, the spectrum is continuous, and its colors smoothly transition into each other through many intermediate shades.

Colors of rainbow

The colors of the rainbow are familiar to almost everyone thanks to the children's rhyme "Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant is sitting." It is customary to talk about seven spectral colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. However, the number of colors perceived by the eye also depends on the culture of a particular people and era. Let's look at how different nations saw rainbow colors.

• For the Russian people, a rainbow is an arc of seven colors.
• For the British and Americans, the rainbow is six colors, since blue and blue in English are the same color.
• Among the Australian Aborigines, the rainbow was associated with six symbolic snakes.
• Some African tribes distinguish only two iridescent colors, or rather, shades - light and dark.
• The great ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle singled out only three primary colors: red, purple and green, and their combinations, in his opinion, gave the rest of the colors.

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Rainbow is one of the most amazing phenomena nature. What is a rainbow? How does she appear? These questions have interested people at all times. Even Aristotle tried to unravel its mystery. There are many beliefs and legends associated with it (the road to the next world, the connection between heaven and earth, a symbol of abundance, etc.). Some peoples believed that the one who passes under the rainbow will change their gender.

Her beauty amazes and delights. Looking at this colorful "magic bridge", I want to believe in miracles. The appearance of a rainbow in the sky notifies that the bad weather is over and a clear sunny time has come.

When does a rainbow happen? It can be observed during rain or after a downpour. But for its occurrence, lightning and thunder are not enough. It appears only if the sun breaks through the clouds. Certain conditions are needed in order for it to be noticed. It is necessary to be between the rain (it should be in front) and the sun (it should be behind). Your eyes, the center of the rainbow and the sun must be on the same line, otherwise you will not see this magical bridge!

Surely many have noticed what happens when a ray falls on a soap bubble or on the edge of a beveled mirror. It is divided into various colors (green, blue, red, yellow, purple, etc.). The object that breaks the beam into its component colors is called a prism. And the resulting multi-colored line is a spectrum.

So what is a curved spectrum, a colored band formed as a result of the separation of a beam of light when passing through raindrops (they are a prism in this case).

The colors of the solar spectrum are arranged in a certain order. On the one hand - red, then orange, next to it - yellow, green, blue, blue, purple. The rainbow is clearly visible as long as the raindrops fall evenly and frequently. The more often, the brighter it is. Thus, three processes occur simultaneously in a raindrop: refraction, reflection and decomposition of light.

Where to see a rainbow? At fountains, waterfalls, against the background of drops, splashes, etc. Its location in the sky depends on the position of the sun. You can admire the entire rainbow circle if you are high in the sky. The higher the sun rises above the horizon, the smaller the colored semicircle becomes.

The first attempt to explain what a rainbow is was made in 1611 by Antonio Dominis. His explanation was different from the biblical one, so he was sentenced to death. In 1637, Descartes gave a scientific phenomenon based on the refraction and reflection of sunlight. At that time, they did not yet know about the decomposition of the beam into a spectrum, that is, dispersion. Therefore, Descartes' rainbow turned out to be white. After 30 years, Newton "colored" it, supplementing his colleague's theory with explanations of the refraction of colored rays in raindrops. Despite the fact that the theory is more than 300 years old, it correctly formulates what a rainbow is, its main features (arrangement of colors, position of arcs, angular parameters).

It is amazing how light and water, which are familiar to us, create together a completely new, unimaginable beauty, a work of art given to us by nature. Rainbow always causes a surge of emotions and remains in memory for a long time.

Rainbow - this magnificent colorful phenomenon has long amazed the imagination of people. Looking at the rainbow, I want to believe in miracles and magic. Which of the natural phenomena can be compared with the beauty of a rainbow? The appearance of a rainbow in the sky means that good weather will soon come and the bad weather will 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 "seven-colored bow of Thunder". Thunderbolt - supreme god Indra, king of kings. The ancient Greeks imagined the rainbow as an intermediary between heaven and earth, that is, between gods and people. They identified the rainbow with the beautiful Irida and portrayed her dressed in silk, which intersected all seven colors. Golden wings were an indispensable attribute of Irida. They symbolized her fickle temper: after all, a rainbow always appears and disappears unexpectedly.

The Arabs believed that the rainbow is the bow of the god of light Kuzakh. After a grueling struggle with the forces of darkness, which sought to prevent the appearance of the sun 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 messenger of victory won by the god Perun over the spirit of evil.

For a rainbow to appear, only thunder and lightning are not enough. 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 thickness of the clouds, conditions are created for its appearance. Beautiful! Changeable and elusive!

To explain 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 a prism is reflected on the other side by all the colors of the rainbow. But in order to understand what a rainbow is, you need to understand what happens inside a prism and how white light emits so many colors.

A prism is a trihedron, usually made of clear 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 the raindrop, bounces off the other side of the raindrop, and exits. During this process, light is decomposed into a spectrum, just like it happens in a transparent trihedral 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 in the sky, i.e. rainbow. Sometimes two rainbows can appear at once. A second rainbow can form because some raindrops can immediately double-reflect. In order for two reflections to occur at the same time, drops of a certain size are needed. The main process for the appearance of a rainbow is the refraction (refraction) or "bending" of light. Light bends, or rather changes its direction, when it moves from one medium to another. A rainbow appears due to the fact that light travels at different speeds to different mediums.

So, the bend of a beam 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 different angles (essentially the beam of light is reflected off the surface of the prism). The light turns again when it exits the prism because one side of the light is moving faster than the other. In addition to the light-bending process itself, the prism separates white light into its component colors. Each color of white light has its own characteristic frequency, which causes the colors to move at different speeds as they pass through the prism.

A color that is slowly refracted in glass bends more when it enters the prism from the air, because the color moves at different speeds in different media. A color that moves faster in the glass does not weaken much, so it does not bend as much. Due to this, all the colors of the rainbow that make up white light are separated in frequency, passing through the glass. If the glass refracts light twice, as it does in a prism, a person sees all the separated colors of white light much better. This is called scattering. Raindrops can refract and scatter light just as it does inside a prism. Under certain conditions, as a result of such refraction of light, a rainbow appears in the sky. Each drop is unique in its own way: the drop has a completely different size and consistency compared to a glass prism. When white sunlight enters a few drops of rain at a certain angle, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet colors appear in the sky, i.e. rainbow. Completing the rainbow are the red and violet colors of the visible light spectrum.

As light travels through the air into a drop of water, the component colors of white light begin to scatter, with the speed at which each color moves depending on their frequency. Violet color reflected in the drop is refracted at an obtuse angle, and red at a sharp angle. On the right side of the drop, some light escapes into the air, while the rest is reflected back. Some of the reflected light exits from the left side of the drop, and refraction occurs again as the light travels towards the air.

In this way, each drop scatters white sunlight into its component colors. But why do we see wide ribbons of color, as if each rainy area scatters only one specific color? This is because we only see the color that comes from each drop. When, for example, droplet A scatters white light, only one red light comes out at a certain angle, visible to our eye. Other color rays are refracted at a different angle, so we can't see them. Sunlight penetrates falling drops equally, so all nearby drops emit red light. Drop B travels slightly slower across the sky, so it can no longer emit red light. But since all other colors have a smaller wave, then 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 purple with the smallest wave glow. If you look at the 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, 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 can see that the colors in the second rainbow are reflected in reverse order compared to the first rainbow. As a result of this 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, as in nature, the rainbow is on the verge between a thunderstorm and sunlight, and in folk tales, she is in connection with the god of thunder and lightning Perun and the bright goddess Lada, one of whose names, by the way, is Perunit the Thunderer. In legends, the rainbow is compared with a wide variety of objects.

Slavs since ancient times believe that the rainbow "drinks" water from lakes, rivers and seas: like a snake, lowering 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 there is a cauldron with ancient gold coins. The legend draws three deities, one of which holds a rainbow and raises water from the river with it, the other creates clouds from this water, and the third, tearing them apart, causes rain. It is like a triune incarnation of Perun.

At Western Slavs there is a belief that a witch can steal a rainbow and hide it, which means producing 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 other world, along which the souls of the dead sometimes come to the sinful earth. This is a symbol of abundance, and if the rainbow has not appeared for a long time, one should expect hunger, crop failure.

In some places, they believed that the rainbow is a brilliant 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 likening to a yoke and buckets of water: “Two seas hang on an arc”, “A multi-colored yoke hung over the river.”

Serbs, Macedonians, Bulgarians and Western Ukrainians believe that the one who passes under the rainbow changes his 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 ”, he must drink in the same place, 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 sex of the unborn child. "If a woman who had only girls was born, goes to drink water at the place where the rainbow "drinks", then after that she boys will be born.

In Bulgaria, there is also a notion 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 "belt of samovil." Serbs and Croats say that God shows women how to weave and what colors to use with the help of a rainbow.

AT ancient india the rainbow is the bow of Indra, the god of thunder; 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 heavenly serpent is identified with a rainbow, which serves as a guardian of treasures or encircles the Earth in a ring. American Indians identify the rainbow with a staircase that leads 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 mountainous conditions of the Cordillera, an amazing natural phenomenon is observed: sometimes a rainbow appears against the background of a foggy haze, as if framing the multiply enlarged reflection of the observer himself. The main sanctuary dedicated to the goddess of the Rainbow, chibcha, was erected next to the mountain waterfall Tekendama, where the brightest arc is always displayed as soon as the sun's rays fall on the water spray. 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. AT Ancient Greece the goddess of the rainbow was the virgin Irida, the messenger of the gods, the daughter of Taumantus and the oceanides Electra, the sister of the harpies. She was depicted with wings and a caduceus. Her attire is made up of dew drops shimmering with rainbow colors. According to the ancients, the rainbow connected heaven and earth, therefore, with the design of Olympic mythology, Irida was considered an intermediary 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 in her hands, with which she delivered water to the clouds.

According to the Bible, the rainbow was created by God after the global flood, as a sign of his promise to never flood people again. In the Talmudic tradition, the rainbow was created by God on the sixth day of creation. The Greeks have a rainbow - a manifestation of the goddess Iris. In medieval Christian images, on the day of the Last Judgment, Christ is 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, five colors are distinguished in the rainbow, the combination of which personifies the unity of yin and yang. On the basis of 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).
A rainbow is an image of peaceful heavenly fire, in contrast to lightning as an expression of the wrath of heavenly powers. The appearance of a rainbow after a thunderstorm, against the backdrop of peaceful nature, along with the sun, made it possible to interpret it as a symbol of peace. In the Bible, the 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 between Yahweh and people. The hemisphere of the rainbow was considered a sphere (the second half of which is supposedly submerged 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 - the appeasement of natural forces, purple - greatness.

In the sky, the rainbow shines and shines,
As if the passage was open to us through it.
A multi-colored beam descended from the sky,
The forest shines in beautiful rainbow dust.

Foliage shimmers like an emerald
Reflections of the rainbow are visible here and there,
The forest plunged into a fairy tale and calmed down,
He wants to delay a wonderful moment.

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

Rapture takes us to sky-high flight,
Perhaps there lies the solution to a miracle.
A rainbow shines on us, fresh and good,
From bright colors eyes glow with happiness.

In fact, there is something about this natural phenomenon that can make anyone feel exciting feelings. The spectacle is really wonderful - multi-colored stripes stretch from one edge of the sky to the other. In ancient times, the rainbow was attributed to God's sign. And there was nothing surprising in this, because it arose out of nowhere. And no less mysteriously disappeared again. The obligatory conditions for her observation were rain and fog. And yet, why and from what a rainbow appears in the sky after rain, for children such a natural miracle is an interesting mystery.

The legend of how the rainbow appeared

Mankind has always sought to understand and determine the cause of the origin of rainbow lines. The ancient Russian population believed that the colored stripes in the sky meant the rocker with which Perunitsa gets herself in order to water the earth with it. The American Indians had their own explanation. They called the phenomenon a ladder, along which they pass into another world. The inhabitants of Scandinavia compared the arc in the sky with a bridge on which the guard of the gods Heimdall moves around the clock, carrying his guard watch.

What causes a rainbow in the sky

Does a rainbow appear? To correctly understand the cause of the rainbow, you should remember what a light beam is. It is known from school lessons in physics that it is made up of particles of electromagnetic wave radiation moving at great speed. Waves of unequal length have differences in color shades. But if they make up a common stream, then the human eye sees them as white. And only when the light beam has an obstacle in its path in the form of water drops or glass, it breaks up into different color shades.

The smallest electromagnetic red waves have less energy, for this reason they are less deflected than the others. The longest are considered violet waves, which have the maximum deviation. It follows that the remaining colors of the rainbow are placed in the gap, which is formed by the red and purple stripes.

The human eye is able to distinguish seven shades - red line, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. But at the same time, it is necessary to know that in reality all shades gradually pass from one to another through a huge number of intermediate tones.

How a rainbow appears

A rainbow requires a light source and a high level of humidity to appear.

Multi-colored stripes are noticeable precisely after the passage of rain or in droplets of fog, which are illuminated by the rays of the sun. A rainbow can be seen near the waterfall, on the coastal part of the reservoir, if the weather is sunny enough.

Why does a rainbow appear

People have always accepted natural phenomena explain in various ways. If there was a large amount of red in the rainbow, strong hurricane winds. Double or triple rainbow observers predicted heavy rainfall in the near future. The height of the rainbow determined whether to expect sunny weather or rainy weather. The abundance of green hue also meant rain, yellow - sunny days, red - dry winds.

In the winter season, a rainbow is considered a rarity, warns of severe frosts or snowfalls. A rainbow along the river portends heavy rain, and across the river - the sun. If you see a rainbow on Saturday, you can expect heavy rain all week.

It is worth noting that the rainbow is a vicious circle, the bottom of which is not visible to the eye, as it is hidden behind the horizon line. It is possible to view a complete rainbow ring from the window of an airplane.