Weather...Or Not

Make A Rainbow...or lots of them!

A rainbow is beautiful art in the sky. Throughout time, people have invented many stories about rainbows. Some people believe there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Some believe a rainbow is God’s paint pot. Others think the rainbow is a group of serpents rising up to eat the sun.

Scientifically, we know that a rainbow is sunlight spread out into its spectrum of colors by water droplets which act like a prism. The spectrum of sunlight is made up of these colors, arranged in this order:

            Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue-Indigo-Violet

What you Need:

• a connected hose with a nozzle that allows fine spray

• a helper

• bright sunlight

• crayons and paper

• Find an open space in your yard, with lots of sunlight.

• Turn the hose on until there is a steady stream. Set the nozzle to a fine spray.

• Ask your helper to hold the hose with the spray pointing upward.

• Stand a few feet away from the water and look into the spray. Do you see a rainbow?

• If not, change your position, moving around the water spray until you do.

• Is there a relationship between the water, where you stand, and the sun? Is it true you see the best rainbows if the sun is behind you as you look into the water spray

• Can you see more than one rainbow at a time?

• Now go inside and use your crayons to draw what you saw.