How Do Rainbows Form?

Rainbows are like colorful slides that appear in the sky after it rains.

Imagine you're playing with a glass of water on a sunny day. When light goes through the water, it bends and splits into different colors, just like how a prism makes a rainbow. Raindrops act like tiny prisms when sunlight passes through them.

When sunlight hits a raindrop, it slows down and bends as it goes inside the drop. This is called refraction. It's like when you stick your arm into water and it looks bent, that’s because light bends too!

Then, the light bounces off the back of the raindrop and bends again when it leaves the drop. This makes the colors spread out more.

Each color comes out at a slightly different angle. So if you're standing in just the right spot, where the sunlight has passed through many raindrops, you see all these colors arranged in an arc, like a colorful slide in the sky! That’s your rainbow.