This article will discuss an amazing and beautiful natural phenomenon that everyone has probably encountered. It is difficult to explain, not knowing the laws of physics, but such a task is set for the first-graders teacher within the framework of the theme "The world around us." Let's try to give a simple and understandable answer why the rainbow is colorful.
About the natural phenomenon
The appearance in the sky of a bright, colorful arch or bridge seems magical. The following lines come to mind:
"For a moment in the sky in growth
A miracle bridge appeared:
Multi-colored, without railing.
Who made the bridge? "
A multi-colored arc appears after heavy rain when the air is filled with water droplets. Under what circumstances can one witness this unique natural phenomenon?
- The air should be filled with water spray.
- Need sunny weather.
- You need to stand with your back to the sun, and droplets must be in front of your eyes.
What is the nature of its appearance, and why is the rainbow colorful?
Lesson (Grade 1): all about the spectrum
Surprisingly, white is absent in nature. When an ordinary ray of light makes its way to Earth, absolutely nothing visually happens. But if there is a transparent substance in its path, the density of which is greater than air, amazing things can happen to light. As soon as it reaches the boundary of the substance, refraction occurs, and the light decays into color components (spectrum). In addition, each of them deviates differently. The phenomenon itself by physicists is called dispersion. After rain, the substance where light is refracted is small drops of water.
The color of such a rainbow consists of seven components that line up in the same sequence. Why is this happening, and why is the rainbow colorful?
Physicists have found out: each color component has its own wavelength, and this value is constant. The longest is purple, and the shortest is red.
The very first person to experimentally prove the refraction of light was Isaac Newton. For his experiment, he used a glass prism. Passing through it, the light beam disintegrated into seven shades. So, there must be a reverse process, and all seven shades will combine in white?
Experience Testing
At home, this is difficult to verify. It is easy to conduct an experiment with a prism using a directional beam from a light bulb, but it will not work to observe the reverse process. Is there any other way to check? It turns out there is.
You need to cut a circle and break it into seven sectors. Each color in the color component of the spectrum. It is important to follow the sequence. What is she like?
- The first sector must be painted red.
- The next one should be orange.
- The third is painted with a yellow pencil.
- Nearby should be green.
- The next color is blue.
- The penultimate sector is painted in blue.
- We complete the process in purple.
Finding out why the rainbow is colorful, try to get a white tint. You can use a fan to give the circle a spin. And the faster the circle rotates, the faster the inertia of vision will work, and others will see a completely white color.
Remember the order of colors
Studying the topic "Why is the rainbow colorful" in grade 1, children find it difficult to remember the order of the colors of the rainbow. A statement that is easy to learn can come to their aid:
Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits (Mnemonic phrase).
How can it help? Each word begins with the same letter as the name of the color. Let's consider in more detail:
- Each is red (letter "k").
- The hunter is orange (letter "o").
- Desires - yellow (letter "g").
- Know - green (letter "z").
- Where is blue (letter "g").
- Sits - blue (letter "c").
- Pheasant - purple (letter "f").
What else should you know?
Having examined why the rainbow is colorful, we did not answer all the questions. Why is the bright heavenly arch different in size? What determines the color saturation?
The size directly depends on the drops. They play the role of a prism. The larger the water droplets, the stronger the rainbow is drawn. It is also important where the heavenly body is located at the moment. The higher, the less the rainbow semicircle will seem. The saturation of the hue depends on what acts as a refractive prism. If you get it using a mirror, choosing the most sunny day, the colors will sparkle most brightly.
And how people in antiquity explained the natural phenomenon and answered the question of why the rainbow is colorful. The Vikings, for example, believed that the rainbow is a kind of bridge between the kingdom of the gods and the world of people. The Indians explained the bright colors by the fact that this is the meadow of the god of thunder. In Africa, people believed that in a place where the rainbow rests on the ground, treasures are buried. The ancient Armenians believed that the heavenly arch is the belt of the sun god. What did the Australians think? Their rainbow was associated with a painted snake, which is the patron saint of water.
Students will be interested in reading works of art, which are interesting to talk about a unique natural phenomenon, which many centuries ago could not give any logical explanation. One of them is the story of M. Gumilevskaya "Why is there a rainbow?"