Monday, June 21, 2010

The mysterious double rainbow

Just saw this double rainbow from my deck about a half hour ago. I never noticed before but the colours are inverted from one another and I had to wonder if this were normal or was this some sort of weird mutant double rainbow? Of course in this brave new of ours I just had to turn to the information super-hi-way to get the lowdown, thus from Wikipedia: Frequently, a dim secondary rainbow is seen outside the primary bow. Secondary rainbows are caused by a double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops, and appear at an angle of 50°–53°. As a result of the second reflection, the colours of a secondary rainbow are inverted compared to the primary bow, with blue on the outside and red on the inside. The secondary rainbow is fainter than the primary because more light escapes from two reflections compared to one and because the rainbow itself is spread over a greater area of the sky. The dark area of unlit sky lying between the primary and secondary bows is called Alexander's band, after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it. Yep, knowledge are good.

So, if I ever start a Rock and Roll beat combo I'm going to call it Alexander's Band, after Alexander of Aphrodisias and I bet nobody will get the joke. Heh.

Anyway... Humouroceros

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