It’s not surprising that rainbows have received a great deal of attention: in textbooks, in magazines, and on the web. They are, after all, beautiful, fascinating, occasionally awe-inspiring, even a little mysterious. They are an almost perfect blend of natural beauty and simple physics. Has everything that can be said about rainbows already been said? Possibly. But, pedagogically, there may be gaps.
References
1.
A focus on pedagogy:
Robert J.
Whitaker
, “Physics of the rainbow
,” Phys. Teach.
12
, 283
–286
(May
1974
).2.
Multiple rainbows:
Jearl D.
Walker
, “Multiple rainbows from single drops of water and other liquids
,” Am. J. Phys.
44
, 421
–433
(May
1976
).3.
Popular treatment in depth, with history: H. Moysés Nussenzveig
, “The theory of the rainbow
,” Sci. Am.
236
, 116
–127
(April
1977
).4.
Textbook derivation of rainbow angle: Harris Benson
, University Physics,
2nd. ed. (Wiley
, New York
, 1996
), pp. 730
–731
.5.
Full treatment including wave aspects: Alexander Haussmann
, “Rainbows in nature; recent advances in observation and theory
,” Eur. J. Phys.
37
, 1
–30
(2016
).6.
Strictly, n is the ratio of the index of water to the index of air.
7.
“
Fresnel’s Equations
,” http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/phyopt/freseq.html; see also “Augustin-Jean Fresnel,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-Jean_Fresnel.8.
Private communication.
9.
“Intensity,” as I am using it here, means amount (or energy) of light per unit time in some range of viewing angle. For other purposes intensity could be defined as light energy per unit time per unit solid angle.
© 2020 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2020
American Association of Physics Teachers
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