The Science of Rainbows and Sunsets

Almost all of us have seen a rainbow at some point in our lives as the clouds part and the sun shines after rainfall. All of us have looked at sunsets as well and marvelled at their beauty. Poets have penned odes to these phenomena and painters have paid homage to them on the canvas. But have you ever wondered what the scientific explanation of these phenomena is? After all, no matter how beautiful a poem or a painting, it can never tell us “how” a rainbow actually forms, let alone why it has the colours it has and all the rest of its intricate details. If you want to understand these phenomena on a much deeper level then you have come to the right place. In this talk, we will see exactly how a rainbow forms via reflection and refraction, why it has the colours it has, why the colours are ordered from red to violet, what gives the rainbow its circular shape and even such exotica as Alexander’s dark band, secondary rainbows, fogbows and moonbows. We will also discuss the science behind sunsets, in particular what gives them their captivating red-orange hue. To cap it all off, in the end we will tie sunsets and rainbows together as a final display of nature’s emergent beauty.

About the Speaker:

Shahryar Khan is a physics graduate from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. He is currently engaged in research in theoretical cosmology and aims to start his PhD next year. Apart from physics and mathematics, he has avid interests in philosophy, computer science, zoology, art and music.