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Unweaving the Rainbow


	Rainbow formation on a disk-like raindrop. Drag the locator up and down to vary where the light ray strikes the raindrop, or right and left to thicken the ray lines.


	Contributed by: Borut Levart

Snapshot 1: Unit refractiveness agrees with the experimental data for the refractive index of water as a function of wavelength. (Source: Philip Laven. "The optics of a water drop.")

Snapshot 2: The refractiveness factor exaggerates the differences between the refractive indices of the colors. It also increases the number of rays and their thickness.

Snapshot 3: Extremely high refraction and a low angle of incidence are shown.

The title of the Demonstration is borrowed from Richard Dawkins, who writes: "My title is from Keats, who believed that Newton had destroyed all the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to the prismatic colors".

Rainbow (ScienceWorld)

"Unweaving the Rainbow" from The Wolfram Demonstrations Project
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/UnweavingTheRainbow/

Contributed by: Borut Levart

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