Rainbow is one of the most amazing and beautiful natural phenomena. From time immemorial, a timid smile of man’s heaven has attracted and helped him to believe in miracles, in fairy tales, in dreams. And while schoolchildren are wondering: “What is the phenomenon of the rainbow?”, Adults are in no hurry to tell a complex scientific answer. It is much more pleasant to understand that this natural phenomenon is the embodiment of all the colors of life, a symbol of hope that certainly appears after heavy rain, which means it brings a drop of joy and happiness to this world.
Legends of the peoples of the world. Divine beginning
An ancient man saw in the arc-shaped color spectrum exclusively divine principle. So, in ancient Greece, the winged goddess of the rainbow Irida, whose clothes, like drops of precious stones, poured drops of dew, was the messenger of immortal celestials. In ancient India, it was believed that the rainbow is the bow of the supreme god of thunder Indra. In China, this natural phenomenon was associated with a heavenly dragon, which combines yin and yang, heaven and earth. Native Americans believed that the rainbow is a ladder to the other world; for the peoples of Africa - a snake, covering the globe with a ring and protecting a valuable treasure. In Scandinavian and Slavic mythology, the rainbow is a wonderful bridge providing a connection between Heaven and Earth.
Physics or chemistry. The incomprehensible nature of the phenomenon
Children often ask parents the question: "What is a rainbow ? Physical or chemical?" Adults, in turn, have difficulty and do not know how to tell the child about the nature of the phenomenon in an accessible language. First of all, it is worth explaining to a little "how-to" that sunlight consists of all the colors that are in the world. But to see the rainbow elements, you need a special object - a prism, which decomposes the color spectrum into separate color lines. In the rainbow, raindrops act as a prism, which change the sunbeam beyond recognition.
Thus, a rainbow is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that a person perceives as seven separate colors, namely: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue, violet.
Burn to shine. Rainbow views
Usually a person sees a rainbow in the form of a graceful arc, although in reality it has the shape of a circle. To consider this natural phenomenon in all its glory is possible only from the side of the plane or at the top of the mountain.
But, in addition to the usual form, the rainbow can take on more extravagant ones. So, in the sky you can see a double "heavenly snake", while the inner rainbow is always brighter than the outer, because the latter is only a reflection of the former. To see such an unusual phenomenon, as a rule, to success, to the favor of Fortune and the fulfillment of cherished desires.
An inverted rainbow is much less common. The reason for this natural phenomenon is a curtain of cirrus clouds formed by ice crystals. Interestingly, the colors in this rainbow are in the reverse order: from purple to red.
A colorless or white rainbow often appears during fog, consisting of drops of water. A similar natural phenomenon can appear in the sky and at night, when the horizon is flooded with the bright light of the moon. The prism in this case is still rain.
It happens that a rainbow appears in the winter. This usually happens on a frosty morning, when the air is filled with tiny ice crystals. But the rarest is the round-horizontal rainbow, which can only occur due to crystals in the shape of a hexagon.
Memory training. The correct arrangement of colors in the rainbow
To remember the order of the colors in the rainbow, it is enough to learn a simple saying that has been known to many since childhood. The initial letter of each word will tell a hue that begins with the same letter. The children's counters read as follows: every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits.