Sunday 22 July 2018

visible light - What determines the apparent radius of the rainbow?


Let's say I know how to compute the apparent radius of a rainbow from the viewpoint of the observer: take a photo of the scene, measure the distance to a known reference object, and its dimensions. Using triangle similarity, I can extrapolate the radius of the rainbow.


But my question is: which physical phenomenon determines the radius?



Answer



It depends on where the sun is. If it is near the horizon (behind you) and in front of you there are water droplets, then you will see a rainbow with a radius (in angular measure) of about 42 degrees, because each water droplet returns a cone of light, whose axis is parallel to the direction to the sun and whose aperture is roughly $2 \cdot 42 = 84$ degrees.


I've never seen better explanations of dozens of phenomena concerning rainbows than in Walter Lewin's lectures.


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