Spectrum of Luck by Daira Kelly

Daira Kelly

Natural

Spectrum of Luck

 

The rainbow observed within this photo is the dispersion of light into a spectrum. In order to grasp the concept of the creation of a rainbow, one must first understand the laws of reflection and refraction. As a light ray moves from one medium to another, in this case from air to water, refraction occurs due to the bending of the ray. Reflection occurs when the ray of light hits a medium other than the one in which it was traveling through, and bounces off. The creation of a rainbow requires light rays to undergo both refraction and reflection as it collides into water droplets in the atmosphere. The light is first refracted when it enters the droplet, causing the ray’s component wavelengths to disperse. It is then reflected off the back of the droplet and returns to the front surface where it is refracted again while leaving the droplet. As the wavelengths of the light disperse, violet light, having the lowest wavelength, deviates the most while red light, having the highest wavelength, deviates the least. It is this difference in deviation that projects the red light at the top of the rainbow while the violet light becomes visible at the bottom.

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