How a Rainbow Works

If you want to see a rainbow you ' have to have the sun behind you when you look at a rainstorm. Each raindrop is more like a little ball than a prism, and light behaves differently when it Sits a ball from how it behaves when it hits a prism. The difference is that the far side of I raindrop acts as a tiny mirror. And that is /hy you need the sun behind you if you want 0 see a rainbow. The light from the sun turns somersault inside every raindrop and is reflected backwards and downwards, wh...

 Rainbow More Beautiful Through Science

Nor ever yet The melting rainbow's vernal-tinctur'd hues To me have shone so pleasing, as when first the hand of science pointed out the path In which the sun-beams gleaming from the west Fall on the watery cloud.