Color and the Visible Spectrum and Rainbows & Blue Sky - Research Paper Example

Other colors that come in the same sequence includes green Blue, Indigo and lastly violet (The Physics of Color n.p.). Electromagnetic radiations having a wavelength that is more than seven hundred and fifty nanometers are referred to as infra-red. On the same note, these with less than three hundred and fifty are termed as ultra-violet. The colors in the spectrum have varying lightness, saturation, as well as darkness. In trying to understand the color spectrum, a color wheel can be used. It is a color spectrum that has been twisted around so as to have the violet and the red terminal joined.

It is significant in helping to understand how the color relates and interact with each other. One can create new colors by mixing two existing ones. A rainbow is a meteorological-optical phenomenon formed by the refraction, reflection and dispersion of sunlight in the raindrops causing a spectrum of colors in the sky. The process of rainbow formation shares similarities with the spectrum obtained from the dispersion of light using a prism. The essay highlights the process of rainbow formation with reference to water droplets and sunlight.

White light originating from the sun hits the water droplets at a particular angle. The angle is significant for the formation of the rainbow because it affects the direction that the light travels after striking the raindrops. When sunlight hits a water droplet in the air, some of the light-rays get reflected according to the law of reflection. The rest of the rays obey the law of refraction as they cross the air-to-water interface. The refraction occurs as the light slows down due to the density variation between the water droplets and the air; water has a higher density compared to the air.

As such, the speed of sunlight reduces causing its path to bend towards the normal line (Lee and Alistair 254). White light is comprised of a spectrum of colors with varying wavelengths. As such, each