Unspeakably Eloquent Laws of Light that Produce Rainbows
Anyone who knows me knows that I love rainbows. I sang about them in my childhood and I have used the theme of rainbows in the story of my spiritual pilgrimage. Recently, I picked up more helpful information about rainbows in a book by Michael Guillen called, Can a Smart Person Believe in God?
In a side note, Michael Guillen has agreed to be the speaker at Phoenix Seminary's Vision of Faith Banquet in 2010. As a former ABC news science correspondent, a theoretical physicist and best-selling author, I believe he will bring a much-needed perspective to the Valley of the Sun.
Michael says that anyone can look at a rainbow and ooh and aah at its beautiful colors. But, he says, I can look at a rainbow and appreciate it at a much deeper level, all because my scientific education has clued me in on the unspeakably eloquent laws of light that explain how a rainbow's colors are produced.
Michael provides these additional facts about rainbows:
1) Rainbows appear at the end of rainstorms because it is then you have two prerequisites for making them: 1) water droplets suspended in the sky and 2) sunlight.
2) A rainbow is created when sunlight enters millions upon millions of water droplets, bounces off their back surfaces, and upon exiting fans out in different colors and different directions-like kids at recess fanning out onto the playground. (Technically speaking, that sequence of events is called refraction, reflection, and dispersion.)
3) A rainbow's visible colors are always arrayed in the same order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Beyond the red and violet are invisible colors called infrared and ultraviolet, respectively.
4) The best way to see a rainbow is to turn your back to the sun and raise your eyes to an angle of forty-two degrees with respect to the sun's angle above the horizon.
5) Rainbows are actually circular. They appear to be arches (i.e., half-circles) only because their bottom halves are cut off by the ground you stand upon. If you wish to see them in their full circular glory, as I have on many occasions, you need to view them from high above the ground, such as onboard an airplane.
I am now much more fully informed about rainbows. When I board a plane, I plan on sitting in the window seat. You never know, I might have the occasion to see the full circular glory of a rainbow! At least I know to be watching!
