Dr. Steven Businger, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Hawaii: Each person sees their own rainbow.
CNN Narrator: These amazing displays of nature are different for everybody because they're created by sunlight 1reflecting through 2raindrops and then reflecting back out. And we all see 3reflections from different drops, 4according to 5atmospheric scientist Dr. Steven Businger.
Dr. Steven Businger: It seems like you're seeing the same rainbow, but as a matter of physics, you're actually seeing different rainbows because you have a different 6perspective, slightly different perspective. So, the rainbow is being made up of different raindrops.
CNN Narrator: We all know what it takes to make a rainbow sunshine and rain at the same time. But what's actually happening, Businger says, is that as sunlight hits the 7droplets, it bends or refracts. And because colors travel at different 8wavelengths, the bending 9reveals them to the human eye.
Dr. Steven Businger: Wavelength of blue light is shorter than the wavelength of red light. And the energy 10associated with the blue light is higher than the energy associated with the red light. And so, the blue light 11tends to be bent more than the red light.
CNN Narrator: And each raindrop is actually reflecting only one color back to us. We see red on top of a rainbow and blue on the bottom, because their different wavelengths mean they exit the raindrops at different angles.
Dr. Steven Businger: Each raindrop in the shower is producing one color for your eye, and then you go to the next raindrop and it produces another color. And in some, that gives you the whole rainbow.
CNN Narrator: If you're very lucky, you might see a double rainbow.
Dr. Steven Businger: It's a second reflection at the back of the drop so that the light comes out 12at a higher angle.
CNN Narrator: Or on a bright 13moonlit night.
Dr. Steven Businger: If you go out at night and there's a full moon and you look away from the moon, there are times where you can see a rainbow or a 14moonbow, I guess it's called at that point.
CNN Narrator: But Businger's favorite rainbow fact is that you'll never find the end of a rainbow.
Dr. Steven Businger: If you're in a helicopter or a small plane, you can see a full circle rainbow because the rain doesn't hit the ground and it creates a full circle.
CNN Narrator: So, 15no pot of gold, but now you know some physics. And that's everyday science.
