You're Probably Wrong About Rainbows — Veritasium

Join the waitlist and be the first in line to get early access to the newsletter...

    Privacy handled with care, unsubscribe at any time.

    You're Probably Wrong About Rainbows

    You probably don’t understand how a rainbow really works. Get a little smarter every day with Brilliant. Visit https://brilliant.org/veritasium to get 20% off your annual premium subscription.

    Special thanks to Mats Vermeeren.

    00:00 Most people don't understand rainbows

    01:08 Light refraction explained

    08:20 How does a rainbow form?

    13:10 Circular rainbows

    15:14 Why are rainbows curved?

    17:30 Why can’t you see a rainbow with sunglasses?

    18:43 Why is it brighter underneath a rainbow?

    20:44 Different types of rainbow

    23:46 Invention of the cloud chamber

    ▀▀▀

    Join us on Patreon for early access videos, bonus content, and to support Veritasium! https://ve42.co/PatreonDE

    Patrons: Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Alexander Tamas, Anton Ragin, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Bill Linder, Blake Byers, Bruce, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, Evgeny Skvortsov, Farbod Mansorian, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, Greg Scopel, I. H., John H. Austin, Jr., Juan Benet, KeyWestr, Kirill Shore, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Matthias Wrobel, Meekay, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, Sam Lutfi, Spilmann Reed, TTST, Tj Steyn, Ubiquity Ventures, gpoly, john kiehl, meg noah, wolfee

    If you’re looking for a molecular modeling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically - https://ve42.co/SnatomsV

    CORRECTION: We mistakenly used picture of the portrait artist Henry Tanworth Wells at 23:54. It should be a picture of CTR Wilson. Sorry! Thanks, @manicpixiedreambuoy, for pointing it out.

    ▀▀▀

    References: https://ve42.co/RefsRainbows

    ▀▀▀

    Directed by Pablo Rovetto and Derek Muller

    Written by Pablo Rovetto and Derek Muller

    Edited by Nick Lear and Trenton

    Animated by Mike Radjabov, Ivy Tello, David Szakaly, Emma Wright and Fabio Albertelli

    Filmed by Derek Muller

    Additional research by Gabe Bean and Geeta Thakur

    Produced by Pablo Rovetto, Derek Muller, Emily Zhang, Rob Beasley Spence and Tori Brittain

    Thumbnail contributions by Jakub Misiek, Ren Hurley and Peter Sheppard

    Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images, Storyblocks

    Music from Epidemic Sound

    Share