AWESOME RAINBOW! Is this constructive interference?
Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 4:20 pm
Howdy all!
I managed to capture a few shots of this sweet rainbow the other day.
This one, like others I've seen on occasion before, had a primary bow then a dimmer secondary bow, with the spectrum of the secondary bow being inverted from the order of the colors in the primary.
We noticed the bright prime bow first, then watched as the secondary bow brightened up. We couldn't turn our eyes away. As we observed this gorgeous phenomenon, it seemed the sky in that area was full of colors! By walking down further in the yard I was able to see why; Along with the prime and secondary bow, there were seemingly infinite sub-bows between them that one could sorta only glimpse from the corner of the eye.
Minutes later the odd bow formed, swinging an entirely different arc than the prime and secondary bows. In an effort to sound scientific and smart in front of my folks, I guessed the odd bow to be the result of constructive interference between the prime bow and the secondary(s).
Is that what's happening here?
I managed to capture a few shots of this sweet rainbow the other day.
This one, like others I've seen on occasion before, had a primary bow then a dimmer secondary bow, with the spectrum of the secondary bow being inverted from the order of the colors in the primary.
We noticed the bright prime bow first, then watched as the secondary bow brightened up. We couldn't turn our eyes away. As we observed this gorgeous phenomenon, it seemed the sky in that area was full of colors! By walking down further in the yard I was able to see why; Along with the prime and secondary bow, there were seemingly infinite sub-bows between them that one could sorta only glimpse from the corner of the eye.
Minutes later the odd bow formed, swinging an entirely different arc than the prime and secondary bows. In an effort to sound scientific and smart in front of my folks, I guessed the odd bow to be the result of constructive interference between the prime bow and the secondary(s).
Is that what's happening here?