Why Can't We Reach the End of the Rainbow? (2024)

FAQs

Why Can't We Reach the End of the Rainbow? ›

A rainbow isn't a fixed object that hangs in the sky. It's an illusion formed between the sunshine, the rain and your eyes. Light bounces out of the raindrops at an angle of 40° for red light, and 42° for blue. And that's true wherever you stand, so as you move, the rainbow moves too and you can never catch it.

As a rainbow is simply a form of optical illusion, as you move around where light is reflected by the rain the view also changes. No matter how, or where, you move the rainbow will always move further away making that pot of gold forever unattainable.

The truth is that there is actually no “end of the rainbow.” While we see rainbows as giant arcs over the Earth's surface, we're only really seeing half of the rainbow. “Since the raindrop is circular, the reflection it creates is also circular,” The Weather Network meteorologist Rachel Modestino explains.

A rainbow doesn't have a specific location in the sky. Its apparent position depends on where you're observing from. Therefore, you can't walk to the end of the rainbow, as it is always 'moving' with you.

If you're the type who goes hunting for a pot of gold every time you see a rainbow, we can save you some trouble: you can never actually get to the end of a rainbow! Because a rainbow is based on the orientation of the observer (you) and the light source (the sun), when you move, the rainbow will move, too.

You may already know that there is no “end” of a rainbow — science tells us that their arch shape is simply an illusion. In reality, while those of us on the ground can only see the light reflected by raindrops above the horizon, viewers in aircraft can sometimes see a rainbow's full, 360-degree circle.

A rainbow isn't a fixed object that hangs in the sky. It's an illusion formed between the sunshine, the rain and your eyes. Light bounces out of the raindrops at an angle of 40° for red light, and 42° for blue. And that's true wherever you stand, so as you move, the rainbow moves too and you can never catch it.

Rainbow is formed just because of dispersion of white light due to raindrops. Technically different colours are light waves of different wavelengths. Since we can not touch light, so we can not even touch a rainbow.

No. A rainbow is a visual phenomenon. Anyway, sometimes you can see it is in fact a circular rather than a semi-circular image.

By construction, rainbows are an optical illusion that stands opposite to the Sun from the observer. As the observer moves, they intercept different light rays, leading to a different rainbow. The rainbow isn't a physical object, it doesn't move, it has no location, and it has no reason to go behind the horizon.

What makes a rainbow 🌈? ›

Rainbows are formed when light from the sun is scattered by water droplets (e.g. raindrops or fog) through a process called refraction. Refraction occurs when the light from the sun changes direction when passing through a medium denser than air, such as a raindrop.

There are an infinite number of wavelenghts in a rainbow. Whether a human can visually distinguish all of these different colors is a different question. The human eye can distinguish about 10 million different colors. Therefore, a rainbow contains about 10 million different colors to the human eye.

You can't drive through a rainbow because it is not a physical object located in space. It's an optical effect based on the refraction, reflection, and dispersion of sunlight by raindrops. It's always in the direction opposite the Sun from your viewpoint. As you move toward a rainbow, it recedes from you.

Nope. A rainbow isn't an physical object with dimensions and ends. It's an optical effect due to sunlight being diffracted by water droplets in the atmosphere. Technically, when you look at a rainbow, you are not seeing the same rainbow as everyone else.

But if you want to go and stand in the multicoloured rays of the rainbow, then no, a rainbow is an optical effect and the person next to you will see the rainbow in a different place to you because it's position is relative to your position.

Absolutely! However, there are a few prerequisites. A helicopter helps! The majority of the population, not knowing much about meteorology, the physics of light, or the electromagnetic spectrum, would not believe it possible that someone could fly through a rainbow.