



#Asphalt texture perspective full#
As HowStuffWorks explains, there’s essentially a line running from the sun to the very center of the rainbow’s full circle (called the antisolar point), which passes straight through your vantage point along the way. Since the colors don’t all refract at the same angle, we see them as separate layers.Īnd because no two people can view that resulting rainbow from exactly the same angle, it’s going to look slightly different for each of us. When they encounter the other side of the droplet, they ricochet off it (reflection) and then exit the droplet, refracting again as they move back from water to air. The combination of the light waves’ angled paths and the fact that they’re passing into a new substance causes them to change speed and appear bent-a process called refraction. With rainbows, however, it’s scientifically impossible for two people to see exactly the same thing.Īs National Geographic reports, a rainbow occurs when light waves encounter water droplets at an angle, often when sunlight shines through raindrops. And like other optical illusions, people don’t always see it the same way. Regardless of how substantial a rainbow looks, it’s only an optical illusion.
