The Science of Rainbows

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Dorothy went over one. LeVar Burton read to us under one. In a song, Kermit the Frog connected us to one. Even Mork's suspenders were made of them.

Our culture, and our skies, are full of rainbows, but do you know how they form? Do we all see the same rainbow? Could cyborg-enhanced mantis shrimp eyes someday see a bigger rainbow?

The answer to all these questions involves a little physics, and the number 42.

Written and hosted by Joe Hanson

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[Wolfy]

One day about twenty years ago, my dad excitedly called for my brother and I to come outside. It was one of those "rain coming down on a sunny day" moments, and in every direction that we looked, from right in front of our faces to as far as we could see, every raindrop that fell was part of a rainbow that we were standing in! We marveled at this rainbow for at least two or three minutes until it moved off into the distance with the rain. It was such a special occurrence that I will never forget it.

[johnallencrist.delosreyes]

I love this channel.
Hi Joe! I'm from the Philippines and I am so amazed by the content of this video.

"The next time you see a rainbow, remember that even though there's no pot of gold at the end, no one else can see exactly the same rainbow that you can-and that sounds like treasure to me."
Epic. So epic.

[emailjamespor]

My girlfriend and I actually drove under a rainbow. We were traveling on the interstate with the sun to our backs. When we went under it, I felt a split second calming and then a chill all over. She felt a euphoria of disbelief that this even happen. We could not believe it! We rolled the windows down and could see it on the backside until it faded away. Mind Blown

[theletter_a]

So if 42 can create rainbows, and 42 is the meaning of life, does that mean rainbows are the meaning of life?

[besmart]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! I'll get to that soon . . . closer to winter

[MeisterJ]

If I remember correctly, ROYGBIV was because the guy that came up with that initialism/acronym because he wanted it to be 2 colors, indigo isn't distinct enough between blue and violet to warrant being a part of color description.

[JackofSpades]

OMG ADVENTURE TIME! MY 2 FAVORITE THINGS COMBINED!!!

[badluck]

0:12 all the bronies screamed.
Also, that bit where he says "The Rainbow Factory", creepypasta loving bronies screamed even harder.

[DinoDudeDillon]

Had always been told that rainbows come from one raindrop. I thought, "So why can multiple people see it? Wouldn't I need to be standing in exactly the right spot to see the rainbow if it's from a single raindrop?" Thanks for clearing that up, IOTBS!

[besmart]

Thanks, I know Derek's videos well. I actually have a whole video about why the sky is any color at all, too! Hope you check it out.

[muddog]

I had a rainbow form around me once. I could look up and see it going into the sky. It only lasted for a couple of minutes. But it was really cool.

[pjkr]

I remember the time where this form of color is just called a rainbow, NOT A PRIDE FLAG OR LGBTQIA++!!!

[dby]

"Stay curious"
Now thats your line.

[besmart]

No, you and I can absolutely observe the same water bottle, you can trace to photons back to the same object. But a rainbow is made up of different droplets and different refracted light for every observer. For each eye, really.

[ParallelPenguins]

I some times wonder what the other wave lengths in the electromagnetic spectrum would look like. What would their colours be? I mean, if we only see about 1% and there's as much colour variation in that 1% as we see, then it stands to reason that the other 99% has some variation too. So it makes me wonder just what colours are we missing? Even if there would just be too much to see, it would still be cool to know what those colours look like.

[Souten]

Are you going to do a video on fire rainbows? Because those are so freakin' awesome

[flutisticwonder]

The mantis shrimp can detect 5400 different colour wavelengths. Just kidding, they can only see 12.

[pixelatedhappiness]

2:10 * starts singing * in the rainbow factory.... where your horrors and nightmares come true...

[bradturnow]

Great job! Love the video! Was so great to share with my 6th grade classes and teach them all about rainbows!

[ThatAnnoyingBird]

"This is Scout! Rainbows make me cry! Ovaih!"