GRAND RAPIDS — Seeing rainbows after a rainstorm is a special treat! Do we know why or how we see all those beautiful colors? Rainbows are really exciting to see, but we don’t always we see them. The angles have to be just right for the reflection and refraction of light to happen and form a rainbow. This experiment will let us create a rainbow! So lets get started!
What you need:
-flashlight
-glass of water
-white piece of paper
Step 1: Fill the glass up with water
Step 2: Place the white piece of paper next to the glass of water
Step 3: Take your flashlight on the other side of the glass and shine the light toward the paper
Step 4: Play around with the angles of the light until a rainbow appears on the paper!
Why does this happen?
Sunlight is known as visible light or white light but is really made up of a mixture of all visible colors. We get rainbows because the light is reflected inside a water droplet and than refracted out into the air again.
When the light passes through the water it is broken up into the seven colors of the spectrum which are seen the rainbow. Specifically, the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet!
You also can not have a rainbow without some rain or water source. Rainbows will typically appear in the section of the sky directly opposite the sun!
Send our meteorologist Candace Monacelli your pictures doing this experiments at home! She will feature future meteorologists on my Facebook page daily!
