Rainbow

Last evening, as it looked as if it was going to rain, I went outside to lock up the sheds. I noticed a
strange light in the distance, close to the ground. I initially thought it was something on fire, but then
I decided it was either the beginning or end of a rainbow. I went back, fetched the camera, and waited
to see if it became stronger, or weaker. This is the image, a few minutes after I fetched the camera.




It in fact got stronger, and as the sun and moist air moved, it apparently passed over Chedzoy Church.
It was not a full semi circle, this was about its largest length. When I first saw it, it seemed to be about
twice the height of the church tower. I suspect in Medieval times we would probably now be thinking
about organising pilgimages to this Holy place....






About an hour later, I saw a double rainbow. I've only seen/photographed one of these before, about 12
years ago, and it was more or less in the same location.There is, of course, a logical explanation for that ;-).





I don't know how many rainbows I have seen, but this is the first time I've noticed that the whole sky is
darkest on the red side of the rainbow, and in the double rainbow, the reds are towards each other.

Has anyone seen a triple or more version?

(These images are straight from the camera, no alterations other than to get them into jpegs and web
friendly size - I've not thought if they are worth processing further.)

Best wishes,

Ray

Nice capture

In Hawaii, it rains quite a bit and in Maui, you can see rainbows frequently - sometimes double or triples. I did not take a camera when I went there last. What was I thinking?

I did post a shot last year here where I captured a rainbow in St. Thomas, USVI
They are really a sight to see in person!

Hi Ray,

Nice captures indeed. Do you reckon that there is some covert leprechaun activity in the area? If I were you, I'd start looking for hidden pots of gold immediately <LOL>.

Is the sky to the right indeed darker, or is it just a visual effect? Makes me wonder why this happens...

Regards,

The sky is darker between the rainbows because the light from there is diffracted to form the brighter rainbows.

Here is a good explanation of the optics of rainbows http://eo.ucar.edu/rainbows/

Thanks Charles for the explanation and the educative link.

Regards,

Thanks, Kathy, Cem, & Charles,

It's funny how things go full circle, so to speak.

After I posted the images, I realised I ought to try and find out a bit more about rainbows.

I'd even forgotten the mnemonic for the colours we learnt at school, but that was some fifty years ago. ;-) , so I googled and found this excellent wikipedia entry, with cross references. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow. I do not normally refer to the 'wiki', since it can contain a number of untruths. However, this one is pretty good - it does not conflict with Charles' link.

Tracking the Alexander Band link - not the Alexander Band of 'Alexander's rag-time Band' fame - but this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_of_Aphrodisias I came across 'peripatetic'. My previous employer had classed myself and some other field engineers as peripatetic (so that our meal allowances could be reduced). We had to look up peripatetic at the time, and found it referred to 'wandering around'. However, I think the last few words of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripatetic reference was more relevant to our situation (just above the sub-title saying 'Notable members of the school')

It is true, there is nothing new under the sun, not even rainbows.

Best wishes,

Ray

PS, I don't know what brand of pixies they have round here, but they look like rabbits ;-)

Ray West said:

..I'd even forgotten the mnemonic for the colours we learnt at school, but that was some fifty years ago. ;-)....
...

PS, I don't know what brand of pixies they have round here, but they look like rabbits ;-)

Click to expand...

Hi Ray,

How can you as a fellow electrical engineer ever forget the most infamous mnemonic of them all?
"Bad Boys Ravish Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly"

Re. the rabbits, do not get fooled by the looks. They can be ravenous pixies in disguise <LOL>

Cheers,

Pefect name

I now have a name for the wild rabbit that has taken up residence in my yard, driving my dogs crazy. Her name is now Pixie. (Which is the name I tried to give one of my dogs and was rejected by my husband who did not want to seen calling down the street "Here, Pixie!).

No Cem, that one is the mnemonic to remember the resistor/capacitor color code. The one for the colors of the rainbow is "Roy G Biv" for Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

This stuff takes me back.....

Charles L Webster said:

No Cem, that one is the mnemonic to remember the resistor/capacitor color code. The one for the colors of the rainbow is "Roy G Biv" for Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

This stuff takes me back.....

Click to expand...

Yes I knew that. Since Ray and I are both Electrical Engineers and since he referred to learning the mnemonic at school, I was accordingly just teasing him <grin>.

Cheers,

Talking of which - Fleming's left and right hand rules. Left hand rule for motors, right hand for generators. You hold your thumb, first and second fingers at right angles to each other - second finger is current, first is magnetic field, thuMb is motion. A guy going back to his digs from my college got thrown off the bus for making 'rude signs', as he was working out his homework.

and then the sailing one - there is some red port left in the bottle.

Now to something that may be useful - a way of coding a pass number like a pin number. Chose a suitable memorable word - such as your mum's maiden name name. So, if my pin number was 6415 and the name was hilaryclinton I could write the letters yahr on the back of the credit card, which would mean nothing to someone else, but would allow me to decode into the correct number.

I think this is all I know about anything, or maybe I'm just tired..

Best wishes,

Ray

Ray West said:

Now to something that may be useful - a way of coding a pass number like a pin number. Chose a suitable memorable word - such as your mum's maiden name name. So, if my pin number was 6415 and the name was hilaryclinton I could write the letters yahr on the back of the credit card, which would mean nothing to someone else, but would allow me to decode into the correct number.


Ray

Click to expand...

Ray, can you PM me the details of how this works, please.

Thanks

Hi Charles,

I didn't explain it too well.

so using the name 'hilaryclinton', but any memorable word will work, if you have at least 'n' unique letters, where n is the largest digit in your pin number, sort of. So you only have to remember the name. You write down 'yahr' . Then, you stand in front of the atm for five minutes, counting your fingers, cursing that you can't remember the name etc..., but 'y' is the sixth letter, 'a' is the fourth, 'h' is the first and 'r' is the fifth giving you your number as '6415'.

Just by chance, 'Hilaryclinton' is a better name than 'MargaretThatcher' - 6415 would be rgma from Maggies name, which you could decode back as 3412 or some other variation. If you had a '9' and hilaryclinton, you would have to treat that differently (i is 9 and 2), same as if you want to count from zero, etc. You can usually define a word and variation to suit your needs, if you can do it simply.

Is that OK. (mathematicians would probably just write the number in base 11, I guess ;-)

Best wishes,

Ray

For PIN's I would just write a fake phone number eg Joe Smith 265-6789 where the prefix is a common local one and last four digits are relevant. No mind contortions to figure it out (for me) other than remembering that Joe Smith corresponds with bank A, but not at all obvious if I lose my wallet.

oh, and just to stay on-topic, contrast adjust in the relevant tonal ranges can really bring out a rainbow.

- DL