How do rainbows form?
Talk about it together
What colors would you like to spot first in a rainbow?
What about...?
Ask your child's own question
Transcript
Have you ever seen bright colors in the sky after rain? How does a rainbow get there?
Sunlight shines into tiny raindrops floating in the air. The drops bend the light as it goes in.
Inside each drop, the light bounces and comes back out. It spreads into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
Lots of raindrops send the colors to your eyes at once. Together, they make a big curved rainbow in the sky.
So that's why rainbows need sunshine and raindrops. The tiny drops help sunlight show its hidden colors!
For grown-ups: the science
A rainbow forms when sunshine goes into raindrops and comes out as many colors.
Sunlight contains many wavelengths. Raindrops refract light as it enters, reflect it inside, and refract it again as it exits; this separates wavelengths into colors. A primary rainbow is seen when the Sun is behind the observer and raindrops are in front.