Interesting facts about rainbows

People have long guessed what exactly a rainbow is. But that doesn't make this natural phenomenon any less beautiful or exciting! Even though we know that in fact the rainbow overflows in the sky are caused by the refraction of light rays in the air saturated with water droplets, there is still something fabulous in them.
• 1. In Bulgaria, some people believe that if a pregnant woman passes under the rainbow arch, the gender of the unborn child can be changed. Women who often gave birth to children of the same sex often tried to resort to this method in the past.
• 2. From a technical point of view, a rainbow occurs when light passes through water droplets in the atmosphere, and the refraction of light leads to the familiar look of a curved arch of different colors that we all know.
• 3. One of the unusual facts of this natural phenomenon is an inverted rainbow. It is extremely rare, and appears only under a number of conditions. At an altitude of at least 8 km there should be a thin layer of air clouds, consisting of millions of ice crystals. And sunlight must fall at such an angle as to be divided into a kind of spectrum that will be reflected in the atmosphere “upside down”. In this case, the shades of the inverted rainbow will be displayed in reverse order: red on the bottom, and purple on top.
• 4. In Slavonic culture, it is generally accepted that the composition of the rainbow includes seven primary colors.
• 5. Isaac Newton was the first to describe all the colors of the rainbow that we know them today. Initially, Isaac Newton designated five primary colors: red, yellow, green, blue, violet. However, later, in view of his occult belief, he increased the number of colors to seven, which corresponds to the number of notes in the musical scale and the number of days in the week.
• 6. In fact, the rainbow is a complete full circle. It looks like a semicircle because a person sees a rainbow from the ground. But from the plane you can see it as a circle.
• 7. Sometimes you can see another rainbow that is less bright around the first one. This is a secondary rainbow, which is formed by light reflected in the drops twice. In the secondary rainbow, the "inverted" order of colors is purple on the outside, and red on the inside. The sky between two rainbows is usually noticeably darker, and this area is called the Alexander’s Dark Band. It received its name from the name of the ancient Greek philosopher Alexander of Aphrodisias, who first described it in 200 AD.
• 8. A fiery rainbow occurs when the movement of cirrus clouds at a great height does not consist of water droplets, but of ice crystals. This leads to an extraordinary play of light and creates this amazing natural phenomenon. The closer the observer is to the earth's poles, the less likely he is to see an unusual fiery rainbow. And in winter it is generally impossible to observe it.
• 9. People have learned to create rainbows artificially a long time ago. All you need is a spray of water in the air plus the right lighting.
• 10. The first rainbow theory was formulated in 1637 by the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes.
• 11. In very rare natural cases, this natural phenomenon can be observed at night, in the moonlight.
• 12. Most often, a rainbow occurs in the morning and evening. For it to form, sunlight must hit the raindrop at an angle of about 42 degrees. Therefore, it is almost impossible to see a rainbow at noon.
• 13. The brighter the light, the richer the rainbow colors.
• 14. The ancient Greeks believed that the rainbow is a bridge between earth and heaven.
• 15. Reflected light, which is refracted from one drop, is reflected from another one at a different angle. And since several people cannot stand in one place at the same time, it turns out that each of us sees his own rainbow, even if we stand side by side and look at one point.
• 16. Not all rainbows are multicolor, there are also monochrome rainbows, that is, one-color. Most often, a monochrome rainbow is presented in the form of a red arc, but sometimes it can also be white.
• 17. Scientists claim that this natural phenomenon occurs not only on Earth, but also on Titan, Saturn's moon.
• 18. From the side of the inner edge, secondary color arcs are sometimes visible, adjacent to the main rainbow.
• 19. It is impossible not only to touch the rainbow, but also to get closer. If you try to approach it, as you approach, it will simply gradually cease to be visible to the observer.
• 20. The appearance of a triple rainbow in natural conditions is extremely rare. It is believed that over the past few centuries there have been only five scientific reports of the observation of this phenomenon.
• 21. On April 5, 2016, the Royal Canadian Mint opened sales of a new $20 silver collector coin, which depicts a rainbow in a stormy sky on a stormy day, as well as a rural landscape. The coin was released as part of the Weather Phenomena series.
• 22. Under laboratory conditions, it is possible to obtain rainbows of much higher orders. There was information in the press that using laser radiation, it was possible to obtain a rainbow of the two hundredth order, that is, two hundred rainbows “nested” one into the other.
• 23. The rainbow is higher in the sky when the sun is lower in the sky and vice versa.
• 24. In winter rainbows are quite rare, because drops of water freeze and fall to the ground as precipitation. Accordingly, there is not enough moisture left in the air to form this optical phenomenon.
• 25. The longest observed rainbow was seen over Sheffield in the UK on March 14, 1994, it remained in the sky from 9 am to 3 pm.
• 26. Rainbows are more common near waterfalls and in tropical regions of the Earth, where the air is more saturated with moisture.
• 27. In fact, the rainbow consists of more than a million shades, including colors that the human eye is unable to distinguish.
• 28. The image of the rainbow is present on the logos, coats of arms and flags of public and political organizations, movements and even countries.
• 29. In ancient Greek mythology, a rainbow is the road of Iris, a messenger between the worlds of gods and people. Iris herself was depicted with wings and a caduceus.
• 30. Thanks to the use of special methods of photography and subsequent processing of the resulting photographs, it is possible to register rainbows of the fourth, fifth, and even, as expected, the seventh orders. It's just that special equipment is able to distinguish colors that we cannot see with the naked eye.