Why Can We See A Rainbow?

After rain some of the rain drops remain suspended in air. When sunlight fall on these drops of water, the drops of water act as a prism. The light rays fall on water drop and refraction takes place at the back of droplet. The light bends because of the change of the medium. Light again refracts at the front of the droplet and bends from its path. The light comes out from the drop of the water splits into different wavelengths. Light is made up of seven colors which includes violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. The water drop acting as a prism splits light into its components.

We can see rainbows, usually after rainfall or when there is moisture in the air. There is a simple scientific explanation behind this. We know that white light is actually composed of 7 colors but when they are together, we just see white light and normally we cannot see all the colors separately. When the light enters the raindrop it gets refracted and as a result it gets dispersed or separated into the composite colors. Each color is refracted at a different angle so that when they emerge from the drop, they do so in the form of a band and this is the rainbow that we see.