Rainbows & the Polarization of Light

$0.00

This is one of a set of almost 40 diagrams exploring Rainbows.

Each diagram appears on a separate page and is supported by a full explanation.

  • Follow the links embedded in the text for definitions of all the key terms.
  • For quick reference don’t miss the summaries of key terms further down each page.
SKU: N/A Categories: , Tags: , ,

Description

RAINBOWS & THE POLARIZATION OF LIGHT

TRY SOME QUICK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TO GET STARTED
What is an observer?
A human observer is a person who watches something from their own unique point of view.
How is wavelength affacted as light travel from air into raindrops?
The wavelength of incident light decreases as it travels from air into a raindrop because water is an optically slower medium.
Does every observer have a unique view of the world?
Yes! Every observer has a unique view of the world because: Each one of us sees the world from a different physical location and so has a unique point of view Every one of us has different life experiences including educational, social and cultural factors that affect how we see the world.
Is sunlight polarized as it undergoes refraction and reflection in a raindrop?
Yes! Sunlight undergoes plane polarization when it strikes a raindrop. The planes in all cases are oriented radially so each plane passes through both the centre of each raindrop and the centre of the rainbow.

About the diagram

About rainbows and light

Rainbows result from light encountering raindrops in the presence of an observer. The phenomenon of rainbows offers many clues as to the nature of light.

Theories of light

There are four principal theories that underpin our understanding of the physical properties of light as it relates to rainbows:

  • Wave theory – the idea that light is transmitted from luminous bodies in an undulatory wave-like motion.
  • Particle theory – the idea that the constitution and properties of light can be described in terms of the interactions of elementary particles.
  • Electromagnetic theory – the classical theory of electromagnetism that describes light as coupled electric and magnetic fields, transporting energy as it propagates through space as a wave. The energy is stored in its electric and magnetic fields and can be measured in terms of its intensity.
  • Quantum theory – explains the interactions of light with matter (atoms, molecules etc.) and describes light as consisting of discrete packets of energy,  photons. Quantum physics suggests that electromagnetic radiation behaves more like a classical wave at lower frequencies and more like a classical particle at higher frequencies, but never completely loses all the qualities of one or the other.
These theories tell us things about the properties of light
  • Light is electromagnetic radiation, the force carrier of radiant energy.
  • Whilst it carries energy and has momentum, light has no mass and so is not matter.
  • Light is the result of the interaction and oscillation of electric and magnetic fields.
  • Light is a microscopic phenomenon that needs macroscopic metaphors such as waves and particles to describe it.
  • Once emitted at its source, light can propagate indefinitely through a vacuum in a straight line at the speed of light (299,792,458 metres a second) but can be deflected by gravity.
  • In any specific instance, light can be described in terms of the inter-relationship of its wavelength, frequency and energy.
  • Light slows down and is deflected as it propagates through air, water, glass and other transparent media as photons interact with matter.
Phenomena associated with light include:
Some facts about electromagnetic waves
Some facts about photons
  • Photons are the elementary building blocks and so the smallest unit used to describe light.
  • Photons are the carriers of electromagnetic force and travel in harmonic waves.
  • Photons are zero mass bosons.
  • Photons have no electric charge.
  • The amount of energy a photon carries can make it behave like a wave or a particle. This is called the “wave-particle duality” of light.
Facts about the electromagnetic spectrum
  • Visible light is just one tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
  • Our eyes only respond to the visible light which we see as colours between red and violet.
  • The electromagnetic spectrum includes, in order of increasing frequency and decreasing wavelength: radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays and gamma rays.
  • The size of the longest wavelengths is unknown but the shortest is believed to be in the vicinity of the Planck length (approximately 1.6 x 1035 meters).
About raindrops and the polarization of light

Polarization of electromagnetic waves refers to the geometrical orientation of their oscillations.

Polarization restricts the orientation of the oscillations of the electric field of electromagnetic waves to a single plane from the point of view of an observer. This phenomenon is known as plane polarization.

  • Plane polarization filters out all the waves where the electric field is not orientated with the plane from the point of view of an observer.
  • To visualize plane polarization, imagine trying to push a large sheet of card through a window fitted with close-fitting vertical bars.
  • Only by aligning the card with the slots between the bars can it pass through. Align the card at any other angle and its path is blocked.
  • Now substitute the alignment of the electric field of an electromagnetic wave for the sheet of card, and plane polarization for the bars on the window.
  • Polarizing lenses used in sunglasses rely on plane polarization. The polarizing plane is orientated horizontally and cuts out glare by blocking vertically aligned waves.
  • Plane polarization is one of the optical effects that account for the appearance of rainbows.
  • It is the position of each raindrop on the arc of a rainbow, with respect to the observer, that determines the angle of the polarizing plane.
  • Rainbows are typically 96% polarized.
Let’s take this one step at a time
  • Rainbows form in the presence of sunlight, raindrops and an observer, and involve a combination of refraction, reflection and chromatic dispersion.
  • It is during reflection off the back of a droplet that light becomes polarized with respect to an observer.
  • The rear hemisphere of a raindrop forms a concave mirror in which an observer sees a tiny reflection of the Sun.
  • As a rainbow forms, an image of the Sun forms in each and every raindrop and the ones in exactly the right place at the right time become visible to the observer.
  • The light reflected towards an observer is polarized on a plane bisecting each droplet and at a tangent to the arc of the rainbow.
  • The rear hemisphere of a raindrop is best thought of as the half of the raindrop opposite the observer and with the Sun at its centre.
  • Now recall that to see yourself in a normal flat mirrored surface it has to be aligned perpendicular to your eyes. Get it right and you see yourself right in the middle. If it’s not perpendicular, then you see your image off-centre because the mirror is not aligned with your eyes on either the horizontal or vertical planes.
  • The Sun appears right in the centre of every raindrop from the point of view of an observer only if it is in exactly the right position in the sky at the right time. In all other cases, the light is scattered in other directions.
  • Only rays that strike at the point where the horizontal and vertical planes intersect are reflected towards the observer. Rays that strike to the left or right or above/below the centre-point miss the observer.
  • The correct alignment of a raindrop involves the vertical axis of the rear hemisphere being at exactly 900 with respect to the observer. In the case of a primary rainbow, the horizontal axis is titled downwards by approx. 20.50.

Some key terms

Rainbow colours

Rainbow colours are the bands of colour seen in rainbows and in other situations where visible light separates into its component wavelengths and the spectral colours corresponding with each wavelength become visible to the human eye.

  • The rainbow colours (ROYGBV) in order of wavelength are red (longest wavelength), orange, yellow, green, blue and violet (shortest wavelength).
  • The human eye, and so human perception, is tuned to the visible spectrum and so to spectral colours between red and violet. It is the sensitivity of the eye to this small part of the electromagnetic spectrum that results in the perception of colour.
  • Defining rainbow colours is a question more closely related to the relationship between perception and language than to anything to do with physics or scientific accuracy.
  • Even the commonplace colours associated with the rainbow defy easy definition. They are concepts we generally agree on, but are not strictly defined by anything in the nature of light itself.
  • Whilst the visible spectrum and spectral colour are both determined by wavelength and frequency it is our eyes and brains that interpret these and create our perceptions after a lot of processing.
Bands of colour

When light separates into its component wavelengths, an observer perceives bands of colour due to the human eye’s sensitivity to different parts of the visible spectrum.

  • When sunlight is dispersed by rain and forms a rainbow, an observer often distinguishes red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet bands of colour.
  • Although an atmospheric rainbow contains electromagnetic waves with all possible wavelengths between red and violet, our eyes encounter difficulties in distinguishing between colours within specific regions of this spectrum. For example, all wavelengths between 520 to 570 nanometers may appear to be exactly the same green to most observers.

Diagrams are free to download

Downloads: Slides or Illustrations

DOWNLOAD DIAGRAMS
  • SLIDES are optimized for viewing on-screen.
  • ILLUSTRATIONS are optimized for printing on A4 pages in portrait format.
SLIDES
  • Slides are available in JPG and AI (Adobe Illustrator) file formats.
  • Titles: Slides have titles.
  • Backgrounds: Black.
  • Size: 1686 x 1124 pixels (3:2 aspect ratio).
ILLUSTRATIONS
  • Illustrations are available in JPG and AI two file formats.
  • Titles: No titles.
  • Backgrounds: White.
  • Size: 1686 x 1124 (3:2 aspect ratio). So all illustrations reproduce at the same scale when inserted into Word documents etc.
  • Labels: Calibri 24pt Italic.

File formats: JPG & AI

DOWNLOAD THE DIAGRAM ON THIS PAGE AS A JPG FILE
  • JPG (JPEG) diagrams are 1686 x 1124 pixels (3:2 aspect ratio).
  • If a JPG diagram doesn’t fit your needs, you can download it as an AI (Adobe Illustrator) file and edit it yourself.
  • JPG files can be placed or pasted directly into MS Office documents.
DOWNLOAD THE DIAGRAM ON THIS PAGE AS AN AI file
  • All AI (Adobe Illustrator) diagrams are 1686 x 1124 pixels (3:2 aspect ratio).
  • All our diagrams are created in Adobe Illustrator as vector drawings.
  • Save as or export AI files to other formats including PDF (.pdf), PNG (.png), JPG (.jpeg) and SVG(.svg) etc.

Spelling: UK & US

We use English (UK) spelling by default here at lightcolourvision.org.

COPY & PASTING TEXT
  • After copy/pasting text please do a spell-check to change our spelling to match your own document.
DOWNLOAD DIAGRAMS
  • Download AI versions of diagrams to change the spelling or language used for titles, labels etc.
  • We are adding American English (US) versions of diagrams on request. Just contact us and let us know what you need.
  • When downloading JPG versions of diagrams, look out for JPG (UK) or JPG (US) in the download dialogue box.

Download agreement

DOWNLOAD AGREEMENT

Light, Colour, Vision & How To See More (https://lightcolourvision.org) : Copyright © 2015-2022 : MediaStudies Trust.

Unless stated otherwise the author of all images and written content on lightcolourvision.org is Ric Mann.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this website may be copied, displayed, extracted, reproduced, utilised, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or scanning without the prior written permission of MediaStudies Trust.

EXCEPTIONS

Exceptions to the above statement are made for personal, educational and non-profit purposes:

Before downloading, cutting and pasting or reproducing any information, images or other assets found on lightcolourvision.org we ask you to agree to the following terms:

  1. All information, images and other assets displayed and made available for download on the lightcolourvision.org website are copyright. This means there are limitations on how they can be used.
  2. All information, images and other assets displayed or made available for download are solely and exclusively to be used for personal, educational and non-profit purposes.
  3. When you find the resources you need, then part of the download process involves you (the user) ticking a box to let us (at lightcolourvision.org) know we both agree on how the material can be used.
  4. Please contact [email protected] before considering any use not covered by the terms of the agreement above.

The copyright to all information, images and all other assets (unless otherwise stated) belongs to:

The Trustees. MediaStudies Trust
111 Lynbrooke Avenue
Blockhouse Bay
Auckland 0600
New Zealand
[email protected]

We love feedback

Your name and email address will be used solely to provide you with information you have specifically requested. See our privacy policy at https://lightcolourvision.org/privacy/.

We welcome your feedback 🙂









    Note: The feedback form records the URL of the current page


    Thank you so much for your time and effort

    Related products