10 Mythen über Regenbogen

Die Fähigkeit eines Regenbogens, fast jedem Freude zu bereiten, ist wahrscheinlich der Grund, warum sie auf Jahrmärkten auf Kinderwangen gemalt werden. Warum sie verwendet werden, um Geburtstagstorten, Gartenfahnen und Bettwäsche zu dekorieren. Warum sie in Liedtexten, Gedichten und anderen Schriften erwähnt werden. Warum sie in vielen Ländern und Völkern zur Folklore gehören und oft eine Verbindung zu Gott oder dem Himmel bedeuten.

Was genau ist ein Regenbogen? Seltsamerweise ist es nur eine optische Täuschung. Wir sehen Regenbögen, wenn Licht auf Wassertropfen trifft. Das Licht wird gebrochen oder ändert seine Richtung und wird dann von der Rückseite der Wassertropfen reflektiert. Wenn dieses reflektierte Licht das Wasser verlässt, wird es erneut in mehreren Winkeln gebrochen [Quelle: National Geographic ].

Man könnte meinen, wir Sterblichen wüssten alles über Regenbögen, so beliebt sie auch sind. Doch es gibt tatsächlich einige Mythen über diese vielfarbigen Illusionen. Du denkst, du bist ziemlich versiert in Regenbogenfarben? Wetten, dass Sie bis zum Ende dieses Artikels mindestens eine neue Tatsache über sie erfahren. Unser erster Regenbogenmythos ist wahrscheinlich der berühmteste.

1. Am Ende des Regenbogens gibt es einen Goldschatz
2. Regenbogen bilden perfekte Bögen
3. Regenbogen enthalten sieben Farben
4. Jeder sieht den gleichen Regenbogen
5. Regenbögen erscheinen nur bei Regen
6. Regenbögen erscheinen nur tagsüber
7. Du kannst keinen Regenbogen erschaffen
8. Sie können einen Regenbogen nicht verschwinden lassen
9. Regenbogen erscheinen zu jeder Stunde gleichermaßen
10. Ein doppelter Regenbogen ist so gut wie es nur geht

Einer der berühmtesten Regenbogenmythen ist, dass am Ende jedes Regenbogens ein Topf voll Gold steht. Nicht nur das, sondern auch, dass der Goldschatz von einem trickreichen Kobold bewacht wird. Die Legende geht so:

Einst lebten die Wikinger in Irland, plünderten und plünderten nach Belieben und vergruben dann ihre unrechtmäßig erworbenen Schätze im ganzen Land. Als sie schließlich die Smaragdinsel verließen, ließen sie versehentlich einen Teil ihrer Beute zurück, die die Kobolde fanden. Jetzt wussten die Kobolde, dass die Wikinger ihre Schätze durch Diebstahl bekommen hatten, was falsch war. Dieses schlechte Verhalten ließ die Kobolde allen Menschen misstrauen, ob Wikinger oder nicht. Um sicherzustellen, dass Menschen das, was sie jetzt als ihr Gold betrachteten, nicht nehmen konnten, vergruben die Kobolde es in Töpfen tief unter der Erde auf der ganzen Insel. Wenn Regenbögen erscheinen, enden sie immer an einer Stelle, an der der Goldschatz eines Kobolds vergraben ist [Quelle: Mystical Myth ].

Hier ist der Haken: Gläubige, die nach dem legendären Goldschatz gesucht haben, enden immer im Stich, weil sie nie das Ende des Regenbogens finden können. Der Grund dafür steht auf der nächsten Seite.

Es ist wahr, dass Regenbögen perfekt abgerundete Bögen zu bilden scheinen. Aber in Wirklichkeit bilden Regenbögen ganze Kreise. Warum sehen wir dann keine Kreise? Wenn wir auf dem Boden stehen, können wir nur Licht sehen , das von Regentropfen über dem Horizont reflektiert wird . Daher können wir die untere, verborgene Hälfte eines Regenbogens nicht sehen. Es gibt jedoch eine Möglichkeit, einen Regenbogen zu sehen, der sich im Kreis schließt. Wenn Sie Pilot oder Passagier in einem Flugzeug oder Helikopter sind – und somit unter den Horizont sehen können – sehen Sie vielleicht einen Regenbogen als vollen Kreis. Manchmal können Menschen, die hohe Berge besteigen, auch kreisförmige Regenbögen sehen [Quellen: Lewin , National Geographic ].

Da ein Regenbogen ein Kreis ist, wirst du nie das Ende oder den Grund erreichen. Regenbogen scheinen sich zu bewegen, wenn Sie dies tun, weil das Licht, das den Bogen bildet, immer in einem bestimmten Abstand und Winkel von Ihnen ist [Quelle: Howard ]. Erinnern Sie sich, dass wir vorhin sagten, Regenbögen seien optische Täuschungen? Deshalb wirst du deinen Goldschatz leider nie finden.

This is an interesting "myth," because depending on how you look at it, it can be considered a true or false statement. In school you probably learned that the colors of the rainbow are (in order) red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. These are actually the colors of the visible spectrum . Red has the longest wavelength and violet the shortest. (Some scientists think indigo is so similar to blue that it's indistinguishable for most people [source: National Geographic].) But those seven hues are not the only ones in the world, of course. Where's the pink, for example? Or brown? Or sage, aqua, celadon and coral?

Those colors, and more, are actually there in the rainbow. They're just invisible. Rainbows contain upward of 1 million colors – that's right, 1 million – in a much larger continuum than the seven measly ones with which we're familiar [source: Howard]. Unfortunately, our human peepers can't see all of those other hues. So does this mean rainbows contain them or not? That's for you to debate.

One of the more fascinating facts about rainbows is that no two people can see the exact same rainbow. You may think you're seeing the same thing; you might even describe the rainbow you're seeing to the friend next to you, who will agree that what she's seeing looks just like the one you described. But you're truly not seeing the same thing. Here's why:

When you're looking at a rainbow, you're looking at light that's reflected by raindrops sitting above the horizon. But your horizon is always different – albeit, sometimes only slightly different – from everyone else's, and vice versa. To put it a little differently, the center of the rainbow arc you're seeing sits on an imaginary line stretching from your eye to the sun . Since your eyes and those of someone else's, even someone next to you, can't be in the same place in space simultaneously, the two of you can never see the same rainbow. If that's not enough to ponder, consider this: Even our own two eyes see slightly different rainbows [sources: National Geographic, Rao, Science Kids].

This seems to make sense – there's that word "rain" in "rainbow" after all. And with good reason. For a rainbow to be formed, there need to be water droplets in the air. Then, light has to shine through those droplets at just the right angle. If this happens – voilà! A rainbow!

But water droplets can be in the air for many other reasons. When it's misty outside or when there's overspray from, say, a waterfall or waves crashing against rocks; in foggy weather; around a fountain or even when it's dewy out. No matter what the source of the water droplets in the air, though, remember that the sun has to be at the proper angle – no higher than about 42 degrees of altitude – or the rainbow will be below the horizon and you most likely won't see it. If everything is in place, you still have to have the sunlight at your back in order to see the rainbow [sources: Edens, Rao].

We've been talking about how water and sunlight are the ingredients for a rainbow. If this is the case, then it should follow that rainbows can only pop out during the day. But they can actually occur at night, too. An evening rainbow is called a moonbow, or lunar rainbow. Moonbows are created when light reflected by the moon hits water droplets in the air. Before you think a moonbow can't be a rainbow if it's made from water and moonlight (not sunlight), remember that moonlight is actually reflected sunlight; the moon doesn't give off any light [source: National Geographic].

For a moonbow to form there needs to be a full or nearly full moon . And, as we said earlier, some water in the air. Because tropical areas such as the Caribbean and Hawaii tend to have showers lasting well into the evening, moonbows most frequently appear in these locales. All of the same colors in a rainbow are present in a moonbow. But moonbows are pretty faint, since moonlight is so much dimmer than sunshine. Since our eyes can't perceive colors when the lighting is dim, we see moonbows as white. Interestingly, though, photos of moonbows do show their colors [sources: Live Science, National Geographic, Science Kids].

Oh yes you can! You may have already done so as a kid and just forgot. All you need to do is turn on a garden hose , stand with your back to the sun, then adjust the hose's nozzle so the water comes out in a fine spray. Look closely – a rainbow will appear in the spray [source: Rao].

If you'd rather create a rainbow via a more official science experiment, gather a shallow pan, water, white paper and mirror . Fill the pan half-full with water, then set the mirror in the pan at an angle. Head outside (it has to be a sunny day) and adjust the pan so that the sunlight hits the portion of the mirror that's submerged in the water. Take your white piece of paper and hold it above the mirror, moving it to different angles until, magically, a rainbow appears on the paper. Only cloudy skies in your neck of the woods? Use a flashlight to replace the sun [source: Merali].

Not only can you create rainbows, you can make them disappear too! And it doesn't involve something like chanting, "Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day!" All you have to do is grab a pair of polarized sunglasses , hold them in front of you vertically, and – poof – no more rainbow. What's going on?

Rainbows are highly polarized objects, which basically means their light waves are vibrating in one plane – in this case, a vertical one. Sunglasses are also polarized vertically. This is because they're created to block reflections and glare, which typically come off of pools of water and other flat surfaces, and are polarized horizontally. Horizontal light waves can't get through vertical polarizers. Thus, if you're wearing vertically polarized sunglasses, you can see vertically polarized rainbows. But turn those sunglasses on their side, effectively creating a horizontally polarized set of shades, and the rainbow's light waves will be blocked, causing the rainbow to mysteriously disappear [sources: Plait, Polarization].

You might think that your chances of seeing a rainbow have nothing to do with the time of day. After all, there can be rain, fog or mist followed by a burst of sunshine in the morning, noon or as evening approaches. This is true, yet showers (one of the most common rainbow precursors) are much more frequent in the late afternoon than they are in the early morning or midday, so rainbow sightings are more likely as the day is winding down. The sun is also at a more favorable angle then – 42 degrees or lower in the horizon [sources: Howard, Rao].

We should mention that this phenomenon mainly pertains to rainbows and the summer. In cooler months when the sun doesn't get as high, you might well see a rainbow in midday [source: KOMO News].

Storms typically move from the west to the east, while the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. So if it's raining in the morning, it will likely be raining in the west. Since the sun is in the east, any visible rainbows will be in the west (the sun has to be at your back in order to see a rainbow). In the late afternoon, the situation will be reversed. Now the sun is in the west, and any showers that pop up will hit your locale, then move to the east – the direction you'll need to be looking (with the sun at your back) if you want to spot a rainbow [source: Rao].

Rainbows can multiply. Double, tertiary (triple) and quaternary (quadruple) rainbows all can occur. Double rainbows occur when light gets reflected twice inside water droplets. When this happens, the second rainbow appears above the main one and is fainter. Its colors are also reversed (red is on the inner section and violet on the outer arch) due to the second reflection [source: National Geographic].

A tertiary rainbow occurs when light is reflected a third time. But you have to be facing the sun to see one because the sun is its center. Tertiary rainbows are very difficult to notice partly because you're looking into the sun, and partly because they're quite faint and very broad. Even harder to see are quaternary rainbows, which form when light is reflected a fourth time. You also need to be facing the sun to spot these, and they're even fainter than tertiary rainbows [source: National Geographic].

And it doesn't stop there: Scientists have detected a 200th order rainbow (that's a rainbow with light reflected 200 times) in the lab!

So now it's time to confess. Were you stumped by any of these? If you weren't, I'd suggest investigating a career in meteorology.

Ursprünglich veröffentlicht: 13. März 2015

Welche Reihenfolge haben die Regenbogenfarben?

Gibt es wirklich sieben Farben im Regenbogen?

Was passiert, wenn wir einen Regenbogen sehen?

Was ist der Mythos über Regenbögen?

Was symbolisieren Regenbögen?

Anmerkung des Autors: 10 Mythen über Regenbogen

Ich habe definitiv ein oder zwei (oder drei oder vier) Dinge aus der Recherche zu diesem Artikel gelernt. Jetzt bin ich auf einer Mission, um einen Mondbogen zu entdecken. Ich schätze, das heißt, ich muss in die Karibik ...

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