Question

Rainbow is formed due to the _______ of sunlight by tiny water droplets.
1. Dispersion
2. Reflection
3. Polarization
4. Interference
5. Refraction

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 1 : Dispersion

The correct answer is ​Dispersion.

• A rainbow is a natural spectrum appearing in the sky usually after a rain shower.
• It occurs due to the dispersion of sunlight by tiny water droplets, present in the atmosphere.
• A rainbow is always formed in a direction opposite to that of the Sun to facilitate easy dispersion of sunlight.
• The water droplets act like small prisms.
• They refract and disperse the incident sunlight, then reflect it inside the droplet, and finally refract it again when it comes out of the raindrop.
• Due to the dispersion of light and internal reflection in the droplet, different colors of the rainbow are visible.

• Reflection:
  • Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two different media so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated. 
• Polarization:
  • Polarization is defined as a phenomenon caused due to the wave nature of electromagnetic radiation.
  • Sunlight travels through the vacuum to reach the Earth, which is an example of an electromagnetic wave.
  • Such waves are called electromagnetic waves because they form when an electric field that interacts with a magnetic field.
• Interference:
  • The phenomenon in which two or more waves superimposed to form a resultant wave of greater, lower or the same amplitude.
  • Waves depending on the alignment of peaks and troughs of the overlapping waves, they might add up, or they can partially or entirely cancel each other.