Now I know that rainbows are formed due to refraction of light from the sun hitting raindrops and light waves leave at varying angles between 40-42 degrees or somewhere around there. Also, that they’re round.

What I don’t understand is how it’s consistent, like I assume it’s hitting many raindrops, but all these drops are in different places so why does it still form a nice circle. Furthermore, why isn’t the whole sky a rainbow if it’s raining and thus hitting all the drops. I suspect the angle of the sun is playing a part but I’m not a science man.

Please help me get this thought out of my head.

  • red_pigeon@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    This answer is purely fictional:

    Imagine all the rain drops forming a film of glass. Now this glass is curved like a cylinder since rain is basically water flowing from a pipe in the sky. So you are looking at the sun through a curved glass hence you see the curved bow. Now your eyes are spherical in shape, hence the light reflected off the cylinder will appear in colours. Go outside and look at any cylinder, you’ll see rainbow colours.