End of the Rainbow

There is no such thing as a rainbow. It exists only from the point of view of the observer - no two people see the same one. If you walk towards it, it recedes, step for step. It depends on the angle of observation, so, no, you can't get under it, you'll always be at the same angle to it. And you can't find the end of the rainbow - believe me, I've tried. (Actually the rainbow is not an arc, but a full circle - so it has no end, even if you could get to it.)

Okay ... that's what I thought. But those were the easy aspects ... there were other parts to my question ...

• multi-rainbows and reason for
• are they adjacent, or is there an un-named color betwixt them, or just "clear", or do infa-red and ultra-violet touch? Or do the colors reverse order on each subsequent adjacent rainbow?
• Radius?
• And a new one .... Where is the Rainbow in the Dark?

I'm sorry your time is up ...

To ask more questions... please insert more coins

Hey! This machine is broken! It didn't answer my full question ... and then has the nuts & bolts to ask for more coin!

Besides ... it is "the coins" that I am looking for.

Oh yeah, one more question .... What is the coefficient of friction between one's bum and the bow, when sliding down it?

From the interweb:

a. A rainbow will not be seen by a surface observer if the sun is greater than 42° above the horizon. Rainbows are most common in the last 4 hours of sunlight due to this time having a good combination of rain being more likely and the sun angle being lower than 42° above the horizon.

b. Red will be the outermost color and violet will be the innermost color of the primary rainbow. This color scheme is reversed for the secondary rainbow.

c. The secondary rainbow encompasses an 8° arc above the primary rainbow. Thus, the secondary rainbow is bigger in diameter.

d. The secondary rainbow is always dimmer than the primary rainbow. The number of reflections within a raindrop determine if the light that eventually escapes from a drop will be seen as that coming from the primary, secondary rainbow or higher order rainbow. Since reflections reduce the amount of light energy (because some energy escapes through the drop upon each reflection), the primary rainbow will always be the brightest.

e. The triple rainbow (tertiary rainbow) will be on the opposite side of the sky as the primary and secondary rainbow. The triple rainbow is rarely seen since it is even dimmer than the secondary rainbow and is on the same side of the sky as the sun. Most people do not know where to look for the tertiary rainbow. It is erroneously thought that the third rainbow is above the secondary rainbow since the secondary rainbow is above the primary rainbow.

f. Segments of a rainbow will often be brighter than other segments. The part of the rainbow that is near the horizon tends to be brighter than the top of the rainbow since there are often more and larger raindrops for the sun's rays to travel through near the horizon. Cloud shadowing will also result in some parts of the rainbow appearing brighter than other parts will. The rainbow will be absent in regions sunlight or raindrops are absent.

bhankiii !! WOW! Good one! Thanx.

In retrospect, I suppose I could have done my own websearch on rainbows .. but it's so much more fun to do it here!! :)

So ... I surmised correctly on a few of those. Gratifying

All very interesting. But I must disagree with one of those facts (or at least supplement the facts). It may be true that what is referred to as the tertiary rainbow is on the opposite side from the first two. But on the other hand ... I personally have seen three rainbows ... all stacked. Twice for sure ... perhaps on three occasions. The first and most striking and memorable was on the DMZ between N. and S. Korea. The triple rainbow literally bridged the two (at the time very hostile) countries together ... which I found quite poetic and satisfying. And massively ironic ... considering the fully loaded M16 that I had cradled in my arms at that moment. For some reason it brought to mind an old picture I've seen of the Vietnam War ... of a battered and seasoned soldier on patrol, with a daisy in his helmet band (it may have simply been for camouflage ... but don't spoil it for me).

I never disbelieve anything I read on the interweb, but I can still agree with you because I found these there:

Ah! Vindicated! So I wasn't on a Soju high when I saw that triple (Soju=national alcoholic beverage of Korea .... quite bizarre actually. Has a layer of formaldehyde on top that you either poured off, or shook up prior to drinking. Ahh ... memories ... Ahh brain cells )

But I digress ... bhankiii ... fantastic pictures. Look at the tremendous radius of that central one! And the dark band between. Fascinating! And I would be really interested in the text that goes with the lowest picture. Would love to know what B-F indicate. What's with the completely different center point and diameter? The third bow I saw wasn't complete ... but I do seem to recall a perceived lack of parallelism at the time.

Very cool!

At the Kiettime fell, 27th July 1736

We saw a singular appearance in the sky at seven o'clock, as the sun shone

from the N.W. there appered in the rain which was falling in the S.E. three raindows, the colours of the internal and external of which were vivid ; of the middlemost, which was parallel to the internal one, and which bifected the external, the colours were not so lively. (Outhier, Journal of a voyage to the north 1736-1737,p. 284), from The Degree Measurements by de Maupertuis in the Tornionlaasko Valley 1736-1737

As for Arc en Ciel - it's a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant in Garland, TX, on Miller Road.

Another erroneous factoid in that statement was that they occur most frewquentlyin the late afternoon. This is dependant upon when water vapor is in the air, and dry wwest coast climates the dew from over night fog caus4es rainbows, which occur most frequently in the mornings just after the fog layer burns off.

The secondary rainbow is caused by light reflecting twice inside the water droplet. Light leaves the droplet in a different direction from the primary rainbow.

You might also notice that the color order is reversed. I was amused once by a painting of a double rainbow that had both rainbows with the same color order.

Where is the Rainbow in the Dark?

Under the right conditions, the full moon might generate a rainbow at night.

Deleted -- broken link

"And a new one .... Where is the Rainbow in the Dark? "

Track 8 on Holy Diver

"Track 8 on Holy Diver"

AH! I was waiting for that. The lack of that answer up til now pretty much dates alot of our fellow readers!

Some awesome websites and info y'all are sending! What a happy subject to know more about

No you can't go under it or get to the other side.

You need to be between the Sun and the rainbow else the optical effect won't work.

You are suffering from one of those optical delusions...

I am NOT! The little red-bearded guy with the green hat assured me .....

I had a strange experience many, many years ago in the car with my mum! we saw a rainbow in the distance between two hills. slowly, we got closer and closer until we drove through the colours! It was a very strange feeling! I have told this story on many ocasion, and always got the same reply, 'You can't drive through a rainbow!' well let me tell you otherwise, You can, and me and my mum did! Didn't find any pot of gold though!

" 'You can't drive through a rainbow!' well let me tell you otherwise, You can, and me and my mum did! Didn't find any pot of gold though! __________________
We sow the seed, nature grows the seed and then we eat the seed! Neil, The Young Ones " Mr. Truman Brain

I believe you Mr. Truman Brain. Absolutely! But you have to eat a whole lot of that seed to be able to drive thru that rainbow. I've heard (but don't condone!!) that smoking it may be slightly more effective even though it is harsh on the lungs. Or better yet ... some cultures would suggest that you use a double album cover and remove the seeds entirely.

Yes .. I can see driving thru rainbows ....

That was definitely an out of box experience I can tell you! There are other cultures who would suggest putting the whole lot in a blender but I can't vouch for that either!

Back in the days when I was prone to do such things, I found myself covered in body paint and dancing around a medicine wheel in the badlands of South Dakota. When the dance was completed and the last stone of the medicine wheel put in place, I looked toward the setting sun and saw a perfect vertical rainbow. That was a good trip.

Interesting... I don't doubt you for a minute...there are plenty of weird effects. I just wonder how?

Maybe mist in the air causing a constant rainbow immediately in front like when you are watering the garden with a sprinkler?

Maybe some weird reflection effect ?

Was it hilly or flat? Where was the sun?

Maybe light reflecting off the road surface doing some weird mirage thing?

I'm guessing the garden sprinkler mist effect would be a reasonable direction to investigate ....

It was going between two large, steep sided hills, from what I remember, there was alot of moisture in the air, but it was not quite raining! Can't remember where the sun was though!

Hey! That's a Beatles Album cover isn't it?

Maybe I struck lucky with the mist idea !

Glad you like it, there are more where that came from! I go with the mist idea too! If you ever get the chance to walk under Niagara falls, the rainbows there are quite breath taking! It's called the Cave of the mists or something similar!

I believe that it is possible to experience a sensation of driving through the leg of a rainbow.

With a dark backdrop some colours of the broken up spectrum can be seen at almost right angles to the direction of the road. I also saw it briefly once, it felt only meters away - the sun was low and it may have been mist. The other side did not have any visible reflections.

It could be possible that the light could be reflected by one drop and then broken up and reflected by a second. The dark backdrop may have made it possible to see.

You were probably going through the Marin tunnel on the othr side of the Golden Gate Bridge, which for some reason was allowed to be painted as a rainbow on the entrance of the tunnel.

Wait a minute!! From the colors alone, we can tell you were "on something" when you claim to have driven through a rainbow.

But that's OK. All reality is subjective.

That's like what I was thinking, you might get this effect if there were a permanent suspension of droplets, as seen near a waterfall where you often see rainbows, like your sprinkler but on a bigger scale. But there'd have to be a road or ground to walk on, to go through the rainbow.

You mean you havn't got your jet pack yet?

I belive I have recently seen a thread on the stormtrack.org forum about rainbows, and someone posted a link to a site about atmospheric optics that has good illustrations of rainbow effects. I'll go over there and dink around to see if I can find the link.

BTW, they have a thread going about moonbows!

Has google shut down ?

Oh, I see.

It's called the "Glory," and it's been seen by many an air traveler that flies out of airports shrouded in fog banks... Like SFO!!!

I keep telling you that you is LAX with your links and puns/entendres. It must have been that trip up the hill. Glorious.

NO! Not that Glory!!!

err, how about some f...........

Don't show this picture to Del the cat - he'll have kittens!

Nah, he's more like....

As a younger incarnation of myself, I was on a hillside during a rain storm and saw 11 rainbows side-by-side, Starting from somewhere in the SF area and traveling down the peninsula to San Mateo.

Here's another interesting thing about rainbows: Some physicists believe that subatomic particles are like rainbows. If you look from your vantage point, you see them, but run up to them and try to measure them and they disappear like rainbows. In other words, they exist as the complex interaction of forces and "whatever," but, like rainbows, they don't really exist if you try to run up and touch them. Woof!!!

I'm sorry, but I believe in rainbows! call me a girl or whatever but, when crunch comes to crunch a rainbow is a rainbow is a rainbow, so bless my little cotton socks and call me mandy! (yes, I've had a bad day OK!)

You're a girl.

Aw, that's not sympathetic. You hang on to that dream Ms Truman. As long as people like you have a heart, the world will all work out. We should all have a vision like Mandy. Without anybody to sigh, dream, and look to brighter things the rainbows would simply cease to be.

Whenever I have a bad day, I try to open the fridge door really fast to see if that light inside really is 'off' with the door is shut. It's never 'off' when I get the door open so I don't believe those horrible stories about it switching off. The cheese and stuff would get all kinda scared in the dark. I tried shutting the door fast to see if some sneaky switch was going to try and do it's evil work fast, but no, it was still lit up as the door closed. My efforts are being rewarded, because all the spilt milk is starting to form the green part of a rainbow. Yes Mandy, it is worth crying over spilt milk. Just keep on crying and hoping for your own personal rainbow. There's a crock of something for all of us. Bless you, and your little cotton socks too.

Without the rainbows my unicorn couldn't find his way home. That's where the fairies live you know. We sit beneath the toadstools sipping tea with dandelions and elves. They are fantastic days. Ohh, those rainbow days.

Can you put elves in tea ? Read this bit of classic TV - Don't have any tea in your mouth when you read about the adult version.

Bungle is a freakin Ewok - who knew!? I wonder what an ewok does when he's not plucking away on his twanger?

Funny how Bungle and Chewbacca both existed before Ewoks came along. I reckon they met.

A rainbow is light reflected from the inside of spherical water drops. Since different colors of light travel at different speeds through water, the different colors of light leave the raindrop in slightly different directions. When you see a rainbow, you are looking in the direction where a drop is reflecting the sunlight back to your eyes.

OK, here's what I found:

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/orders.htm

http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/firerainbow.asp

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/atmos/halo22.html

http://www.astrophys-assist.com/wilobs/weathwin/weathwin.htm

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/

http://www.weatherscapes.com/gallery.php?cat=optics&subcat=light_ice&expand=light_ice

Enjoy!

Interestingly, the rainbow(s) made by an aircraft as projected onto a cloud, is/are circular.

It's impossible to get to the end of a rainbow because it is really a giant ring of multicolored light in the sky.

It took me long enough to find a picture but here it is. This is where you can drive under a rainbow...

And for those interested why the tunnel into Marin is a rainbow, here ya go...

The rainbows were conceived and ordered by Alan S. Hart, a Cal Trans Engineer who retired in the early 70's after 40 years on the job. He wrote in his memoirs, "I was driving north on US-101 on the Waldo Grade in Marin County when I was struck by the sight of the tunnel which appeared like a rainbow except for the lack of color. Why not make it a rainbow?...I was so certain that the bureaucrats at Sacramento would find 1000 reasons why I couldn't paint the rainbows that I never made any effort to get their approval." He wrote, "The exhibit was installed and caused some gawking by passing motorists but no jams, congestion or accidents although the Highway Patrol was upset about it."

Mr. Hart passed away in 1994. His rainbows will hopefully live on forever.

(Special Thanks to the Cal Trans Library and Alicia Whitten for their help.)

That's cool. How did he get the job done, and do they have to keep repainting ? Also, what's on the other portal !. Seriously though - why that tunnel, is it pretty scenery or something ? Tunnel portals are often left looking kind of drab. I found this picture which is fun, though probably a road safety hazard;

For some reason, that's the only side that's painted. It does lead into Marin and Sausalito, which are two really nice places just on the other side of the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco.

Other entrance is a life like sphincter.

I have seen the end of the rainbow. I seen it in a southeast field next to where KY 1704 runs under I-64 near Olive Hill, KY in 1990. My sister-in-law seen the end of one in 2005 near Soldier, KY in the field near her home. My daughter was there and she said that my SIL stood in the rainbow. I always wondered how far it was to the other end of the rainbow.