cladking Posted April 3, 2018 Report Share Posted April 3, 2018 It is my contention that the parallel rays of light from the sun create the rainbow and that the moonbow is slightly distorted because the moon is only .025% as far away and the rays of light are not parallel. Am I misthinking this? If not how can I explain the effect to a layman? I believe that, at least in theory, the speed of light can be calculated by the shift between two colors in the bows. The speed of light is proportional to the distortion and the diameter of the moon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveC426913 Posted April 22, 2018 Report Share Posted April 22, 2018 (edited) It is my contention that the parallel rays of light from the sun create the rainbow and that the moonbow is slightly distorted because the moon is only .025% as far away and the rays of light are not parallel. Am I misthinking this? If not how can I explain the effect to a layman? I believe that, at least in theory, the speed of light can be calculated by the shift between two colors in the bows. The speed of light is proportional to the distortion and the diameter of the moon. It is not distance that makes the Sun's rays essentially parallel; it is angular diameter. The sun's image from Earth is a disc 0.5 degrees in diameter. That's a distance to diameter ratio of 400:1. So, it is self-evident that the sun's rays are non-parallel by up to 0.5 degrees. What if we do the same thing with the Moon? Well, because of solar eclipses, we know that the Moon's angular diameter is the same as the Sun's (the Moon perfectly eclipses the Sun) or 0.5 degrees. Same ratio: 400:1. And that means the Moon's rays are just as parallel as the Sun's. Or, put another way: the triangle formed by the Moon and your point of observation is similar (as in: similar triangles) to the triangle formed by the Sun and your PoV. Which mans, by definition all angles in the two triangles are identical. As for what that has to do with the speed of light, well, it doesn't. Edited April 22, 2018 by DaveC426913 cladking and JMJones0424 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cladking Posted May 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2018 Thank you. So you don't believe the difference between the center and edge of the sun or the center and edge of the moon would affect the rainbow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveC426913 Posted May 7, 2018 Report Share Posted May 7, 2018 Thank you. So you don't believe the difference between the center and edge of the sun or the center and edge of the moon would affect the rainbow? They are the same. Both are discs spanning about 0.5 degrees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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