Have you ever seen a beautiful rainbow after it rains? Rainbows are bright arcs of color that paint the sky. They happen when sunshine meets raindrops.
Think about white light from the sun. White light is actually made of many different colors, like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple! When sunlight shines into a tiny raindrop, the raindrop acts like a tiny prism. It bends the light. Each color bends a little bit differently. This makes all the colors spread out, like magic!
When you see a rainbow, you are seeing sunlight bending inside millions of raindrops. Each raindrop sends a tiny bit of color to your eye. Because of how light bends, all these tiny bits make a big curve in the sky. It looks like a giant colorful arch!
You can never reach the end of a rainbow, even if you try to run fast! That’s because a rainbow is not a solid thing you can touch. It is just light. The rainbow you see depends on where you are standing and where the sun is. If you move, the rainbow moves too! It’s a special light show, just for your eyes.