Can you reach the end of a rainbow? Some people even tried to taste it. Some people even have plans to go over the rainbow. Maybe people even have attempted to do so. But let me tell you that you can’t reach the horizon. Rainbow is a kind of optical illusion.

How is the rainbow formed?

Rainbow is formed after rain. The rain drops suspended in the air act as prisms and split the light rays. Light split up into different bands of color. Thousands and thousands of raindrops suspended in the air at different angles result in the formation of different colors. Thus different colors appeared in the rainbow became visible to the eye.

Why can’t you reach the end of a rainbow?   

As mentioned, the rainbow is an optical illusion. It doesn’t have a physical existence so you can’t reach its end. Actually, how can an optical illusion have an end? Raindrops refract and internally reflect light from the sun towards you. So the refraction of different wavelengths at different angles, that’s how you see various colors. Logically, as you move towards the rainbow the angles you are seeing through it changes.

When you walk towards rainbow

When you walk towards the rainbow it moves away from you. In simple words it is always at the same distance from you no matter how much you walk towards it. To visually create the colors of the rainbow the raindrops must be at a certain distance from you.

Perfect Angle for Rainbow  

The rainbows are formed if the angle between the sunlight and the raindrops is 42 degrees. Similar should be the angle for the observer.

Can you get over a rainbow?     

You may be thinking that if we cannot go over the rainbow than how people took photos of the rainbow from the airplane. Definitely, this statement contradicts. This all is a matter of optical illusion again. The windows of an airplane have the property of birefringence.

The optical property of light in which light split into two rays when viewed through a material is called birefringence. In this phenomena the cracked light rays have colors dispersed differently. So when you see through the window of your aircraft the light rays interfere with each other thus forming various bands of light. The polarizing power of water helps to enhance this effect too. So what you see through the aircraft window is not a rainbow, it just looks like the one.