Wednesday, April 1, 2015

optics - Is it possible to witness a circular rainbow?


What conditions would make it possible to see a naturally occurring fully 360° circular rainbow? Would it even be possible?



Answer



The centre of a rainbow is where your shadow would fall. When you're standing on level ground your shadow is obviously on the ground so you only see part of the arc. If you're in an aeroplane or on a mountaintop or somewhere where your shadow would be above ground, you may be able to see the whole circle.


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classical mechanics - Moment of a force about a given axis (Torque) - Scalar or vectorial?

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