{"id":1681,"date":"2026-10-12T18:19:53","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T18:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/how-rainbows-form\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T18:19:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T18:19:53","slug":"how-rainbows-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/how-rainbows-form\/","title":{"rendered":"How Rainbows Form: The Science of Light and Water Drops"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/how-rainbows-form-infographic.png\" alt=\"Infographic: How Rainbows Form: The Science of Light and Water Drops\" class=\"wp-image-1680\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/how-rainbows-form-infographic.png 1200w, https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/how-rainbows-form-infographic-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/how-rainbows-form-infographic-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/how-rainbows-form-infographic-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Few sights in nature are as cheerful as a rainbow after rain. But a rainbow is not an object in the sky. It is an optical effect created when sunlight meets millions of tiny water drops.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 1: Light bends as it enters a drop<\/h2><p>White sunlight is a mix of all colours. When it enters a raindrop, it slows down and bends. This bending is called <strong>refraction<\/strong>. Each colour bends by a slightly different amount: violet bends the most and red the least, so the colours begin to separate.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 2: Light reflects off the back of the drop<\/h2><p>The light travels to the back of the drop and bounces off its inner surface, like a mirror.<\/p>\n<h2>Step 3: Light bends again as it leaves<\/h2><p>As the light exits the front of the drop, it refracts a second time and the colours spread out further. Each drop sends one colour to your eye, and together millions of drops paint the full arc.<\/p>\n<h2>Why is a rainbow curved?<\/h2><p>Light leaves the drops at an angle of about 40\u201342 degrees from the point directly opposite the Sun (called the antisolar point). All drops at that angle form a circle around that point. We usually see only an arc because the ground cuts off the bottom half. From an aeroplane, you can sometimes see a complete circular rainbow.<\/p>\n<h2>The order of colours<\/h2><p>Red is always on the outside and violet on the inside: <strong>Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet<\/strong> (remembered as VIBGYOR in reverse).<\/p>\n<h2>Double rainbows<\/h2><p>Sometimes a fainter second rainbow appears above the first. It forms when light reflects twice inside each drop, and its colours are in reverse order.<\/p>\n<h2>When can you see one?<\/h2><ul><li>The Sun must be behind you and fairly low in the sky, so mornings and late afternoons are best.<\/li><li>Rain or mist must be in front of you.<\/li><li>You can make your own with a garden hose spraying fine mist with the Sun at your back.<\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A rainbow is sunlight split into colours by raindrops. Learn how refraction and reflection create the arc, and why it always appears opposite the Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow_YXIDA:productID":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1681"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiwaripedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}