Hi there! Have you ever seen a rainbow? It’s such a magical sight, isn’t it? Every time I think of Saint Patrick’s Day, I remember the beautiful rainbows and how I used to dream of finding a pot of gold at the end of one. But have you ever wondered how rainbows are made? Let’s find out together!
Normally, the sky is just blue or gray, but sometimes, a rainbow appears, filling the sky with colors like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple (which scientists call violet). But where do these colors come from? Let’s explore this mystery!
For a long time, people didn’t know how rainbows got their colors. Unlike a red chair or a green frog, which get their colors from paint or skin, a rainbow is different. It’s not something you can touch. It appears in the sky and then disappears. So, what’s going on?
The first big clue came from pieces of glass. People noticed that glass, especially those with flat sides, would sparkle with rainbow colors in sunlight. A scientist named Isaac Newton was curious about this. He used a triangle-shaped piece of glass called a prism to do an experiment.
In a dark room, Newton let a single beam of sunlight pass through a prism, and it created rainbow colors on the wall. He wondered if the prism was making these colors or if sunlight itself was a mix of all the rainbow colors. To test this, he used a second prism to combine the colors back together, and guess what? He got white light!
Newton’s experiment showed that sunlight is actually made up of all the rainbow colors. But how do we see rainbows in the sky? Well, instead of glass prisms, we have tiny water droplets in the air. When sunlight passes through these droplets, it separates into all the colors, creating a rainbow. You can even see rainbows in the spray from sprinklers or waterfalls!
Now that you know how rainbows are made, why not try a fun experiment? You can use a glass of water and a flashlight to create your own rainbow at home. Just shine the light through the water and watch the magic happen!
Thanks for joining me on this colorful journey. Remember, there are mysteries all around us, so keep exploring and stay curious!
Rainbow Hunt: Next time it rains and the sun comes out, go on a rainbow hunt! Look for rainbows in the sky and try to spot all the colors. Can you find a rainbow in other places, like in the spray from a garden hose or a waterfall? Draw a picture of the rainbow you find and label the colors.
Prism Play: If you have a prism or can borrow one, try Newton’s experiment at home. Hold the prism up to a beam of sunlight and watch the colors appear. What happens if you change the angle of the prism? Can you make the colors disappear by using a second prism? Write down your observations and share them with your class.
Color Mixing Magic: Use paints or colored pencils to mix colors and create your own rainbow. Start with the primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. What new colors can you make by mixing them? Can you create all the colors of the rainbow? Share your color creations with your friends and explain how they relate to the colors in a rainbow.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the YouTube transcript:
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Hi, it’s Doug. Saint Patrick’s Day is a time when people wear green and some even dress up in costumes, but for me, it always makes me think of rainbows. I remember when I was young, seeing a rainbow in the springtime and riding my bike toward it, hoping to find a pot of gold. I never did get there.
Someone named Joseph has a question about rainbows. Let’s give him a call now.
Hi, Doug.
Hi, Joseph.
I have a question for you. How are rainbows made?
That’s a great question. Normally, the sky outside doesn’t have that many colors, just blue or gray when it’s dark and cloudy, but then sometimes a rainbow comes out. It’s such a special thing when you get to see a rainbow. People even know the colors of the rainbow by heart: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Scientists call it violet. But where do rainbow colors come from? How are rainbows made? Do you have any ideas? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
Okay, you ready? For a long time, no one had a very good idea about where rainbows come from and how they get all those colors. Rainbows aren’t like most colorful things that you can reach out and touch. For example, think about a red chair or a green frog. Those things get their colors from what they’re made of. A red chair has red paint on it, and a frog has green skin, but a rainbow is different. It’s not a thing you can reach out and touch. It doesn’t contain colored stuff like a chair or a frog has. Instead, it’s something that floats there like a big arch in the sky, and rainbows don’t just stay there either. Not long after they appear, they start to disappear. It’s really puzzling what a rainbow’s colors are made of or where a rainbow comes from.
The first big clue about how rainbows are made actually didn’t come from rainbows in the sky. It had to do with rainbow colors from pieces of glass. For a long time, people had noticed that glass pieces, especially ones with flat sides, would sparkle with rainbow colors when placed in sunlight. Scientists noticed that one of the best ways to get a rainbow sparkle was using a triangle-shaped piece of glass called a prism. One scientist in particular, Isaac Newton, was very interested in this. He wondered if there was a connection between the rainbow colors of a glass prism and the rainbows that we see in the sky.
To figure this out, he bought a prism and came up with a science experiment. In a dark room, he covered his window and made a hole in the covering to let in a single beam of sunlight. When he placed his prism in front of the beam of sunlight, it created rainbow colors on the wall. Interesting, Newton thought. But how did it do that? Was the prism somehow creating those colors? That’s what some people thought, but Newton wondered if sunlight itself is maybe a mixture of all the colors of the rainbow. If true, then maybe what the prism is doing is separating white sunlight into each color of the rainbow.
This is where Newton did something very clever. He took a second prism and turned it the other way to combine all the rainbow colors of light shining onto it. When he combined all the colors of the rainbow, guess what he got? White light. So Newton proved that the colors of the rainbow really do come from sunlight, but that still doesn’t solve why a rainbow appears in the sky sometimes.
Well, there aren’t pieces of glass, but there are water droplets. It’s rain. Water droplets can do similar things as a prism, taking white sunlight and separating it into all the colors it’s made of. When we see sunlight shining on a bunch of water droplets, we see a rainbow. It’s not just raindrops either; any drops of water in the air will do. You can find rainbows under waterfalls or even in the spray from sprinklers.
So in summary, Isaac Newton proved that white sunlight is actually a combination of all the colors of a rainbow. A rainbow is formed when white sunlight passes through water droplets in the sky, acting like prisms.
That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Joseph, for asking it. Now, we have something special for this week’s episode. My friends and I here at Mystery Science have created a step-by-step activity where you can experiment with sunlight and rainbow colors. You can find a link to the activity at the end of this video.
For the next episode, I reached into my question jar and found three questions submitted to me that I’m thinking about answering. When this video is done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from: Are shooting stars really stars? How deep does the ocean go? Or how do people know what expiration date to put on food? So submit your vote when the video’s over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious and see you next week.
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