The month of April brings spring showers. After those showers, the sun comes out and a rainbow often appears. This makes today, the perfect time to celebrate Find a Rainbow Day. We don’t always hope for rain in an already rainy month. But, to truly enjoy this day, you need rain to see a rainbow. And, if you are really lucky, you may see an uncommon double one. Make sure you have your camera ready, so you can capture the moment.
Alright, let’s all dial back to our high school science class days for a moment, to remember exactly how a rainbow is formed. A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon. A rainbow is bent, refracted white light, forming all the colors of the light spectrum. In high school, your science teacher used a prism, to demonstrate this dispersion of light into its primary colors. When you see a rainbow, it’s the same principle as the prism. Water particles in the air act as a prism to bend light, forming a rainbow.
Do You Remember? If you know Roy G. Biv, advance to the head of the class! Roy G. Biv was the name science teachers used, to help us to memorize the major colors of the white light spectrum, in the order in which they appear in a rainbow. They are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Here’s another fact you may not know: A rainbow is actually a circle. But, rainbows are low in the sky, with the bottom half lost in the earth.
In Search of a Pot of Gold – Me lads and me laddies, according to Irish tradition, there is an elusive pot of gold awaiting you. It was put there by elves.
Song of the Day: Somewhere Over the Rainbow, sung by Judy Garland