Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - high definition version

If you've looked for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and been disappointed then this animation shows how it's a rain cone and you are at the apex, sort of the end :)
If the myth is true then maybe the rainbow reminds us that there's no point running around the country-side looking for material wealth because the most valuable wealth is within us.
Because of the geometry of how light and water drops interact to form the rainbow each of us sees our own rainbow.
The animation shows a rainbow that might be seen in a fountain or sprinkler in front of the observer. A rainbow formed by a shower of rain has all the same geometry with the observer's head at the apex of a larger cone so the rainbow might be further away but will appear as a circle with the same angular size.
I used Blender to make the animation.
Animation by Malcolm Lambert.
More videos by Malcolm Lambert are on the youtube Rocksolver channel.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• rainbow
• bow
• circle
• end
• pot
• crock
• gold
• spectrum
• colour
• color
• rain
• animation
• refraction
• reflect
• cone
• sphere
• sun
• water
• drop
• Malcolm
• Lambert