A rainbow inside a raindrop.
What happens to sunlight inside a raindrop?
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What happens to sunlight inside a raindrop?
Move the droplet into the horizontal light beam, near y=45%.
White light refracts when it enters water, reflects once inside the drop, and refracts again on exit. Different wavelengths bend by different amounts. The separated outgoing directions produce the primary rainbow seen from the right viewing angle.
Ray angles use Snell’s law with red n=1.331, blue n=1.343 and one internal reflection. Primary viewing angle is 4r−2i. Individual rays are enlarged; no solid rainbow object exists at the droplet.
Send white light through the drop to separate red and blue directions.
Separate red and blue light through a water drop.