MINI: How Are Rainbows Made?

Christian O'Connell's morning show takes a heartwarming turn as he shares a lovely encounter with a dad explaining a rainbow to his kids on the beach. Christian reflects on how he would've handled the situation, and the dad's impressive explanation of refraction leaves him impressed. They dive into the science behind rainbows, discussing light, water, and the colors of the spectrum. Christian shares his own attempts to explain the phenomenon.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
I Heeart podcasts. You can hear more gold one I
four point three podcasts, playlist and listen live on the
free I heart app. Got anything good? Hey, this is
the Christian O'Connell show podcast. Yesterday I was walking my
dog down on the beach near where we live, and

(00:32):
I thought I'd pop into the ocean for a swim.
And I was just getting out. I saw a lovely scene.
I saw a younger dad with his two boys. And
then but both the boys would have been under ten, right,
and they're having a way of time in there. One
that was on the dad's back, and the dad was
doing a great game where he's pretending that he didn't
know where some was. He just goings on your back, dad, Dad.

(00:55):
It was just a lot, and it was early in
the morning, it was It was a really nice scene.
And then the the younger of the two brothers looked
down and saw that on the on the ocean bed
on the sand was a rainbow. And then he said
to his dad, how is that, dad, Dad? There's a
rainbow on the floor here on the sound. How is
there a rainbow here? And the dad sort of looked
at me and I look back and go oh, yea,

(01:17):
there's a lot to explain, you know, because we see
a rainbow, we don't really understand what's going on in it.
And the dad goes, it's complicated, and I looked over
like that ain't going to be enough for them. They don't.
It's like a press conference. When it gets like that,
there's many more questions ago, and then the gun goes,
what do you mean? And it starts trying to explain

(01:38):
what a rainbow is and why you can see it
through the water on the floor of the ocean bed. Now,
without googling it, how would you have handled that situation?
Dad did a great job. I'll tell you in a
minute what he said. What would you have said explaining
it to under ten year olds?

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Now? I don't know what any of these words mean,
but I've heard other people say them, so I would
say things like it's the light refracting off the water.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Ding ding ding. The dad hit the R word, he
said refraction. I almost want to high five him. That
is credible. You went straight to refraction, the light separating
or the light beams or no idea what it means?
What does it mean?

Speaker 2 (02:15):
I would never clear I heard people say it before.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Lights, because a rainbow in the sky's form when the
light is refracting bending through water droplets.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Now you've lost me. Max asked me how people are
made the other day, so I've got no.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Idea you have. Otherwise they need to go and ask
their actual dad one day. I'll explain one day when
you find out I've only got that porn band online,
get your idea out. Perhaps, what would you say reflection?
I would have used the wrong word. I would have

(02:51):
said it's a summer reflecting off the water, which wouldn't
have been very scientific at all. How is it rainbow made?
What's happening? Isn't it prisms and stuff? That is right?

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Wavelengths of light?

Speaker 1 (03:06):
How does the so light is coming in hitting water?
And then why is it separating? And we get all
those separate colors?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Do you need the ocean for a rainbow? Like can't
you have a rainbow over a mountain?

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yes, yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Right, And it's bending at angle I think forty two
degrees is the relevant angle. We seem to paint that
up over the year, that it's forty two degrees. Then
why do we get the separate colors?

Speaker 2 (03:38):
What Parla spectrum. That's something.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Can they be different? What is that stored in the
electromagnetic rays? Yeah, of the Earth's atmosphere. Got it? I
felt like I want to ask this dad some more
questions him to explain it to me his surrogate fifty
two year old son. Now, okay, I have a layman's
term of how a rainbow is formed.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Okay, cool?

Speaker 1 (04:00):
All right? A rainbow is formed when sunlight shines through
water droplets in the air, like rain or missed, causing
the light to bend, reflect, and break into its component colors.
It's an optical illusion. And I don't even know what
that any of this means. Is anyone keeping up to speed?

Speaker 2 (04:16):
What's a level below?

Speaker 1 (04:19):
What's break it down to us as if we're five
year olds? Ten year olds? Is too complex? Here is
the step by step process. One of them team came
in said, here's the layman's version of this one. This
is not the layman's version. This is PhD we need
like Toddler's version. Yes, how would they cover this on
bluey and then half that again? Here's his step by

(04:40):
sex process. In simpler terms, sunlight hits a droplet. Imagine
a single rain drop in the sky. When sunlight, which
is white light. Didn't know that, enters this drop, it
slows down and bends. That is refraction. Light breaks into colors.
Because white light is actually made up of all the
colors of the rainbow. The different colors bend at slightly
different angles cause them to separate. This is called dispersion.

(05:04):
So do you know that white light it's containing of
other I didn't, but that's fascinating. The light bounces, The
light reflects off the back of the rain drop. It
travels back toward the front. Come on, light exits and
bends again. As the light leaves the rain drop, it
bends refracts one more time, spreading the colors out further,

(05:24):
making them visible to the eye. It's a three piece
combo refraction, reflection, and another refraction. I'm further away from
understanding this now. There's nothing but more confusion. I don't
think I can relax enough now to do today's show.
I'm in a world of bewilderment. Christian O'Connell shot on
podcast