I might be stupid by not knowing this, but I suddenly got an item on my bucket list.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

This is interesting, but what I want to know is what shape they would be if water droplets were not round.

Like, if they were cuboid or pyramidal instead, would that change the shape of the rainbow?

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago

    Probably not. I would think the more likely outcome is either a very patchy rainbow or none at all. The sphere shape is what is giving you the continuous rainbow, not making it circular. The fact that each color is at a specified angle relative to you / the incidence angle of sunlight does that part.

  • source
  • parent