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Wait… is a rainbow not actually there? It’s just something that happens in our eyes when the light hits it at the right angle or something
Is the cross section of a cone not a circle, or semi circle in this case since we only see part of the “cone”?
This. We don’t as people define a rainbow as the path of light or anything like that. We define a rainbow as a circle of colors in the sky. That’s how language works.
Right, your point is taken but the point is more to explain the full portion of the rainbow. Not just the section you see.
Every person sees a rainbow in a different location because rainbows are an optical phenomenon not a real object - in that sense rainbows are occupying the entire space, not just a cone even. The expansion is dumb.
I watched Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land and you are right.
There are gaps in between the rain drops which means we see other parts of the cone. Maybe?
The pot of gold was inside us the whole time
All I’m hearn’ is something something something I oughta gut you like a pig. 🐷 🤟
I like how in the first image that guy is in an ‘absolutely pissed about it’ stance
Walks forever to find the end of the rainbow
End of rainbow was inside him the whole time
My old apartment used to be set up in just such a way that after a midday shower, you would see a small Brocken Spectre’s centered around each of your eyes when you looked in the mirror. It was honestly kind of terrifying. The first time I noticed it, I wondered if I’d finally lost it.
Glowing circles around your black eyes in a fogged mirror.I think that means I have the opposite of a pot of gold in me.
Then why are we not calling it a raincone? 🤔
If it freezes on the way down does it become a snowcone?
Even if it was a semi-circle, why would we call it a bow? It doesn’t look like a bow for archery, a bow for music, or a bow for fashion. 🤷♂️
I think the use of the word bow for curve or bend was used before all of the uses you mention. It comes from the word used to describe something turning back or a person taking a bow or bowing down. Bow specifically meaning bend comes from the word bugan. Where the bow used in archery comes from the word boga.
All of these do have the same origin meaning bend or curve. Specifically a bend in a river or the action of bowing. I can’t find definitively if these were once separate things or always the same word.
Note the use of “arch” in archery also meaning a curve.
An archery bow is a semicircle
A violin bow is made from a curved piece of wood, the same as the weapon.
Yes, but curved does not mean circular. Do either bows have constant curvature?
OK? But we’re not calling archery bows and violin bows circular; we’re calling them bows i.e. curved. And we’re calling the rainbow a bow, i.e. curved, which it is. Curved does not imply circular, but circular does imply curved.
Besides, I don’t think the proto-indo-europeans were out there with calipers measuring the precise curvature of objects they decided to label with the *bheug- root.
But why is it at that distance specifically? Can I get closer to a rainbow and see it become bigger? Why is there a 42° angle in the picture?
That’s the angle at which light is reflected by water droplets. The drawing is incorrect in that the cone is horizontal while the light appears to come from a higher angle. The cone is always directly opposite to the direction of the light source. Here’s a better drawing, with more reading about what exactly is going on.
So then the bottom middle picture in this post is also probably shopped?
Certainly, although it appears to depict the elusive 3rd order rainbow.
My treasure is lifelong depression. Yay.
Samesies!
Now I need this for sun dogs.
Look look! 42
Shit, that’s neat.
That sounds like something a leprechaun would say…
Leprechaun propaganda to keep us poor.
I like being gay on the inside. It’s really the only place I’m allowed to be gay.
Why does it appear at the distance that it does?
Because that is where the water droplets are. If you mist a hose in front of you on a sunny day, you’ll see the rainbow close.
If everyone is special, then no one is.
A rainbow is a participation award.
