Wednesday 22 February 2012

How Very Odd!



I posted this picture back on September 17th 2011, and it recently popped up again in my 'You might also like' widget.

If you enlarge the picture (which I can't for some reason) you'll notice that the sky 'inside' the rainbow is lighter in colour than it is 'outside'.

Does anyone know why this should be? Or is it just a photographic illusion?

Once again, any answer (serious or amusing) will be kindly received.

20 comments:

  1. There IS a serious answer...I can't remember it now.

    An aside though...The angle of refraction(I think that it is the word) within a rainbow was found to be 42 .... So now we know that the answer is the rainbow but we're still hunting the Ultimate Question!! ;-)

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  2. Don't know. Ask Zippy, Bungle or G-G-G-Geoffrey.

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  3. I don't know the answer, but i took a similar photo looking from our house towards the Mendips. I thought it was the magic of Glastonbury which caused it :-)

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  4. I cannot seem to enlarge your picture, Cro, and the bit of sky between the two bows looks the same to me, but I know what you mean. I also don't know what causes it. Hope that helps.

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    1. I can't enlarge it either... dunno why.

      Maybe we will never have the answer!

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  5. Have no idea, but I do think you were lucky to have a camera in your hand at that moment and get a shot like that. Awesome!

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  6. I don't have a clue why, but I am sure there is an explanation for it.

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  7. I'm thinking refraction, but also it looks as if there's a break in the clouds, showing lighter skies.

    megan

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  8. Google and ye shall find. Here you go, hon.

    http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2007-01-08-rainbow-bright_x.htm

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    1. Thanks Brenda.... now why didn't I think of Google? A bit complicated, but I get the gist.

      Any one as confused as moi, can go to Brenda's link above. QED.

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  9. Because Cro, the inside of a rainbow is always the magical portion. The outside is just plain sky. Of course you have to be a bit magical yourself to see the difference. (Sorry Tom)

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    1. Donna, with such a wonderful Irish name, you'd just HAVE to believe in 'crocks of gold'. So do I.

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  10. http://eo.ucar.edu/rainbows/ makes it fairly simple:
    Many leftover light wavelengths are reflected *smaller* than the rainbow wavelengths, ie inside the bow, but less light greater that the bow's wavelengths - ie outside the bow. This light is all wavelengths mixed up, so comes out white.

    Apparently there's also a darker band *between* the two bows, called the Alexander Dark Band after some dude Alexander who noticed it 1800 years ago.
    It would make a good name for a music group. Perhaps of the Afro-American persuasion...?

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    1. Thanks K. I'd copyright ADB if I was you... someone might well want to use it.

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  11. No idea but it's a fantastic picture

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  12. 'Twas a bit of beauty just for you, and you were lucky enough to have a camera in hand to record it. Did ye look for the potty of gold?

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  13. Oh dear Cro...is that physics or could it be chemistry...maybe geography....I'm stumped...great pic though!!

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  14. Before I read all the above explanations, scientific and otherwise, I would have suggested that the interior space was filled with angels and energies so magnificent that even your camera's eye could behold them. I still feel that could be so.

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    Replies
    1. That, or light shining up from the crock of gold!

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