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Photo: Eric Rolph at English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5.Test your knowledge on the colorful arcs that light up our skies! From the physics of light to ancient myths and modern symbols, explore how rainbows work and what they mean to us.
Storm Watcher 0–4 · Spectrum Explorer 5–8 · Prism Master 9–10
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Judy Garland delivered the definitive performance of this legendary ballad. Interestingly, film executives initially wanted to cut the song because they felt it slowed down the Kansas sequence, but thankfully it was kept and won an Oscar.
Photo: Trailer screenshot Licencing information :http://www.creativeclearance.com/guide, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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The rainbow trout is famous for the reddish-pink stripe that runs along its lateral line. Highly prized by anglers, this hardy species has been introduced to cold-water habitats on every continent except Antarctica.
Photo: Engbretson Eric, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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Iris is the goddess of the rainbow, serving as a link between heaven and earth. She was often depicted carrying a pitcher of water from the River Styx, traveling with the speed of the wind to deliver messages from the gods to humanity.
Photo: Diosphos Painter, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.
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Bifröst is the legendary bridge guarded by the god Heimdallr. The Norse people envisioned it as a shimmering rainbow made of fire, which prevented giants from easily crossing over into Asgard.
Photo: Emil Doepler, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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Rainbows are actually full circles centered on the point directly opposite the Sun from your eyes. We usually only see an arc because the horizon blocks the lower half, but pilots and skydivers occasionally see the full circle.
Photo: Eric Rolph at English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5.
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu coined the phrase to celebrate the peaceful coming together of South Africa's many different ethnic groups. President Nelson Mandela later adopted and popularized the term during his first year in office.
Photo: John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Gilbert Baker, an American artist, hand-dyed and stitched the first rainbow flags for a parade in San Francisco. Each of the original eight colours had its own meaning, such as red for life, yellow for sunlight and green for nature.
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Named after the ancient Greek philosopher Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it in 200 AD, this band appears darker because light reflected in this region does not reach the observer's eyes, creating a stark contrast in the sky.
Photo: Gnangarra, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 au.
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The circumzenithal arc is a stunning sight that curves away from the Sun, looking like a colorful smile in the sky. It forms when sunlight refracts through flat, hexagonal ice crystals in high-altitude cirrus clouds.
Photo: Joseph Thiebes, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Isaac Newton's experiments in the 1660s showed that a prism could split white light into a colorful spectrum and then recombine them. Surprisingly, he originally identified only five colors, later adding orange and indigo to match the number of notes in a musical scale.
Photo: Godfrey Kneller, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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