Analysis of rainbow from the perspective of wave optics

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  • College of Physics Scienceand Technology,Central China Normal University,Wuhan,Hubei 430079,China

Received date: 2021-03-11

  Revised date: 2021-04-08

  Online published: 2021-11-15

Abstract

Rainbow is a common natural phenomenon. In optical teaching,Fermat principle

is the general method for rainbow angle deduction. Nevertheless,this paper explores the

principles and features of rainbow from the perspective of wave optics by calculating the

intensity of the primary and secondary rainbow quantitatively using Fresnel formula.

Furthermore,we give the theoretical explanation of the rainbow angle and prove that

rainbow is partial polarized light.

Cite this article

JIA Jia-qi, HUANG Zhen, XU Qing-ying, WU Qing-lin . Analysis of rainbow from the perspective of wave optics[J]. College Physics, 2021 , 40(11) : 69 . DOI: 10.16854 / j.cnki.1000-0712.210114

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