Double Rainbows

Two reflections

An interactive lesson with 6 steps, about 5 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Two internal reflections make a secondary bow at about 51°.
• Its colours are reversed, and it’s fainter.
• Alexander’s dark band lies between the two bows.

Steps

1. The secondary bow
2. Which is fainter?
3. Higher orders
4. How high is the bow?
5. Where the two bows come from
6. The dark band