Paging Bill Nye! Vol. 2
Jan. 10th, 2007 05:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
c9On my flight from Montréal -- whose airport has gotten more than a little depressed of late -- to Charlottetown -- whose airport gives a bit of a chuckle to frequent international travelers, I'd wager -- a curious sight could be seen.
Once above the clouds, with the sun shining on us from the right, I could see a circular rainbow (actually three complete cycles of the light spectrum) on the clouds opposite the sun. I hypothesize that the plane was causing a slight diffraction of the sunlight, which was pretily projected on the clouds below and to the left of us.
But why? I don't completely grasp what the plane was doing, and why it didn't simply project a shadow.
I'm also not convinced that it was projected, since of course rainbows are really the moisture in the air, but clouds are moisture too. Damn the many facets and layers of science! Damn them!
I'm sitting in seat 1A on a CRJ-100. Not the funnest plane around. I always put my winter coat in my checked bag too, so I get to walk to and from the plane in my short-sleeve shirt. Woo!
Once above the clouds, with the sun shining on us from the right, I could see a circular rainbow (actually three complete cycles of the light spectrum) on the clouds opposite the sun. I hypothesize that the plane was causing a slight diffraction of the sunlight, which was pretily projected on the clouds below and to the left of us.
But why? I don't completely grasp what the plane was doing, and why it didn't simply project a shadow.
I'm also not convinced that it was projected, since of course rainbows are really the moisture in the air, but clouds are moisture too. Damn the many facets and layers of science! Damn them!
I'm sitting in seat 1A on a CRJ-100. Not the funnest plane around. I always put my winter coat in my checked bag too, so I get to walk to and from the plane in my short-sleeve shirt. Woo!
