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Asked by gray20kue to Sally, Mmboyi, Mike, Michael, Jacinta, Gliday, Elkana, Edna, Arnold on 21 Jul 2025.
Question: Why is the rainbow having seven colours
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Michael Kimwele answered on 21 Jul 2025:
A rainbow appears to have seven colors because when sunlight passes through raindrops in the atmosphere, it is refracted (bent), reflected inside the droplet, and then refracted again as it exits, causing the light to spread out into its component colors. This process, called dispersion, separates the light into a spectrum of colors based on different wavelengths. The human eye commonly distinguishes seven main colors in this spectrum—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet—though in reality, the rainbow is a continuous gradient of colors.
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Edna Muthamia answered on 21 Jul 2025:
@Gray20kue
Thanks for the question.
The Rainbows appear to have seven colors because water droplets break sunlight into the seven colors of the spectrum. When the light passes through water droplets, the droplets act as a prism that disperses it in seven colors. -
Arnold Lambisia answered on 21 Jul 2025:
In primary school, we used to create artificial rainbows by shining light from a torch through a glass filled with water with a mirror angled in the glass and checking for a rainbow on a white wall or a white paper. Here we learnt about dispersion and how sunlight interacts with water droplets in the atmosphere to form a rainbow especially when it’s raining and the sun is aout only to produce seven colors.
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