Pooja V.

A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc.The birth of each rainbow begins with millions of tiny rain droplets. The rain droplets serve as a type of reflector of light. White light enters one individual rain droplet and exits as one specific color of the spectrum. Without millions of rain droplets, a rainbow would not occur. If you only had a few rain droplets you would only see a few colors. This is typically why rainbow appear after a rain storm. Each rain droplet has a function in the formation of the rainbow. Sunlight enters the rain droplet at a specific angle and the rain droplet separates the white light into many different colors. This angle is a fixed measurement between your eye and the sun. What color is refracted depends upon the critical angle, which is the angle the sunlight strikes the back of the rain droplet. Red light bends the least, exiting the rain droplet at a 42 degree angle, while Violet light bends the most, exiting the rain droplet at a 40 degree angle. All of the other colors of the rainbow exit the rain droplets at some angle between 40 and 42 degrees, thus making up the colors of the rainbow ROYGBIV, this order never changes.