How To Make A Rainbow

It's very easy! All you need is a special piece of solid glass called Prism (shown in picture). If it's really sunny outside, you can even make a rainbow using a mirror. We will be doing this experiment with a mirror

It might seem that sunlight has no colors because of which it is called white light. But the actual truth is that light is made up of different colors. We can see these colors when light travels through millions of falling raindrops. The light gets refracted due to which its colors get separated. That is how rainbows are formed.

What You Will Need

1. Water
2. Modelling Clay
3. A piece of white card or thick paper
4. A shallow tray
5. A small mirror

Instructions

1. Fill the tray with water for about 2 cms.

2. Place this tray near the window.

3. Draw your curtains so that only narrow partial sunlight enters the room.

4. Rest the mirror at an angle inside the tray, using some modelling clay to make it stand.

5. Move the tray until the sunlight falls directly on the mirror.

6. Hold a card in between the tray and the window such that finally a rainbow appears on the card. You might have to move the mirror around a bit in order to get the rainbow.

That's it! See how easy it is?

1. The order in which the colors appear on the rainbow - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. Looking for a way to remember this? Just keep 'Roy G. Biv' in your mind.

2. Do you know who discovered the seven distinct colors of the rainbow spectrum? Yes, it's Isaac Newton!

3. All that we see, feel, hear, smell and taste actually exist between the frequencies of Red and Violet!