Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:46:56.886Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Icebows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

John B. Reade
John B. Reade*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Manchester M13 9PL
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The picture of a rainbow on the front cover of this issue of the Gazette was taken by Nicholas Robins in May 1993. He was mystified that the rainbow was upside down, and wrote to the ‘Notes and Queries’ column in the Guardian asking if anyone could explain why. From subsequent correspondence and discussion it emerged that there were further irregularities. Firstly, it was not raining. Rainbows are caused by refraction of light through spherical raindrops, so how could you have a rainbow with no raindrops? Secondly, this rainbow was in the same direction as the sun. To see a normal rainbow you have to stand with your back to the sun.

Type
Articles
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 81 , Issue 490 , March 1997 , pp. 3 - 6
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)