why rainbow is in semicircular shape??????
Answers
Explanation:
A rainbow forms when the sun's rays pass through millions of drops of water – that's why we normally see them around shower clouds. A raindrop acts like a prism, splitting "white" light from the sun into its seven component colours, the colours of the rainbow.
Light travels at different speeds in air and water. As the sun's rays pass through a water droplet, they are slowed down and this causes them to bend, a process called refraction. (You can see an example of this by standing a pencil in a glass of water: look from the side and the pencil looks bent because of the difference in the properties of air and water.) Because a rain droplet is round, the light passing through follows its circular shape. All rainbows are actually full circles, but most people only ever see an arc or semicircle because they are standing on the ground and the other half is cut off by the horizon. If you see a rainbow from an aeroplane, you might see the full circle.