How come rainbows are so colorful?
by 
Suby the Coat
ANSWERS: 3
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Sunlight is not composed of one color, but 7 major ones (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). When it rains, and the sunlight falls at a certain angle on the droplets suspended in the air, they act as prisms and split the light into it's various colors.
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A rainbow occurs when raindrops and sunshine cross paths. Sunlight consists of all the colors of light, which add together to make white illumination. When sunlight enters water drops, it reflects off their inside surfaces. While passing through the droplets, the light also separates into its component colors, which is similar to the effect of a glass prism. Each falling water drop actually flashes its colors to the observer for just an instant, before another drop takes its place.
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"White light separates into different colours (wavelengths) on entering the raindrop because red light is refracted by a lesser angle than blue light. On leaving the raindrop, the red rays have turned through a smaller angle than the blue rays, producing a rainbow." "Since rainbows are composed of a nearly continuous spectrum, different people, most notably across different cultures, identify different numbers of colours in rainbows." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow#Scientific_explanation
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