Althouse: Backyard sprinkler rainbow with a complete arch.

September 12, 2017

Backyard sprinkler rainbow with a complete arch.

Created and captured by Meade.

31 comments:

George Grady said...: "Arc" or "arch"?; 9/12/17, 6:37 PM
Ann Althouse said...: You can see I've used both words.; 9/12/17, 6:41 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I'm going to say that arch is the better word because not all arcs are arches and this is an arch.; 9/12/17, 6:42 PM
Meade said...: The arc of droplets is long but it bends toward the compost bin.; 9/12/17, 6:43 PM
Ann Althouse said...: An "arc" is any part of the curve of a circle. It can be a part of a rainbow that you see, but an arch is a curved structure, "esp. The rainbow" per the OED, which gives these impressive quotes:

a1616 Shakespeare Tempest (1623) iv. i. 71 The Queene o'th Skie, Whose watry Arch, and messenger, am I.
1728 J. Thomson Spring 14 Beholds th' amusive Arch before him fly.
1851 J. Ruskin Stones of Venice I. x. 123 God's arch, the arch of the rainbow.; 9/12/17, 6:46 PM
n.n said...: Black, brown, and a thousand slices of white.; 9/12/17, 7:15 PM
Big Mike said...: Wife and I saw a double rainbow on our honeymoon. Supposed to bring good luck. As many years as we've been married, and the good times we've had, I'd have to say it did.; 9/12/17, 8:16 PM
Richard said...: Did you find the pot of gold?; 9/12/17, 8:33 PM
Ralph L said...: How far apart did you have to have the sprinkler and the camera?

Twenty years ago, the city lowered the water pressure in my part of town to preserve the old water main from the 20's. Sprinklers extend about 5 feet.; 9/12/17, 8:35 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: Golden Shower Rainbow.

I am Laslo.; 9/12/17, 8:38 PM
Luke Lea said...: Looking down into a valley recently I saw one of 270 degrees or so.; 9/12/17, 8:39 PM
sunsong said...: kewl; 9/12/17, 9:05 PM
rhhardin said...: With properly formed drops you can get a double rainbow with reversed color sequencing, and a darker sky between them that the light has been borrowed from.

Google double rainbow paintings images and see how many artists get the sequence wrong or leave out the darker sky, for the occasional one who gets it right.; 9/12/17, 9:08 PM
rhhardin said...: You get complete arcs looking down on rainbows over clouds from the air.; 9/12/17, 9:09 PM
rhhardin said...: There are also triple rainbows, from an additional internal reflection inside the drops. Weaker yet.; 9/12/17, 9:12 PM
Rick said...: So on the way home tonight I called in a suspected drunk driver. He was weaving across multiple lanes (including nearly into me), and almost off the road while driving alternately too slow and too fast.

Two minutes later he causes an accident. After an over-correction following a drift onto the shoulder he lost control hitting an SUV and twisting around their car. All in all the accident wasn't as bad as I feared, no other vehicles and only the instigator hitting the wall. Then he drives off. Since the other car didn't look too bad (and there were other cars stopping and I'm not a doctor) I followed the drunk while calling police again. I follow him when he exits and makes a few turns but lose him after an illegal u-turn I wasn't going to risk and he's gone by the time I find a safe turn.

It was dark and I was only closer than a couple of hundred yards once when he was blocked by another car on the exit so I only got the first three digits of the plate. What do you suppose the chances are of finding him? The cops came off as very pessimistic but maybe they're conditioned to do that so people don't push them so hard.

Anyway, an odd drive home.; 9/12/17, 9:27 PM
Bad Lieutenant said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/12/17, 9:58 PM
Bad Lieutenant said...: If you were able to tell them that it was a gray 1998 Buick Roadmaster with Texas license plates GBN something something, driven by a white male in his thirties with a blonde crew cut, they can do a lot more with that than with, it was a dark Something Something with license plate GBN something something driven by a somebody.; 9/12/17, 10:01 PM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Oh, glad you are okay and that nobody seems to have been badly injured.; 9/12/17, 10:02 PM
traditionalguy said...: Nice rainbow. All you needed was sun and mist to refract the sunlight. We have had two days of mist, and all really need now is our sunlight and our Electrical power back.; 9/12/17, 11:10 PM
Hey Skipper said...: The sprinkler rainbow conspiracy! It's true!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_c6HsiixFS8; 9/13/17, 2:38 AM
Eleanor said...: We were on a rainy day bus trip to a Vermont winery Labor Day weekend. There was a full rainbow that arched across the highway, and we rode under it. Lots of cheering on the bus. It was after we visited the winery.; 9/13/17, 6:17 AM
John Evans said...: You have a clever yard man.; 9/13/17, 6:44 AM
Darrell said...: Have you checked both ends for a pot of gold?; 9/13/17, 7:21 AM
tcrosse said...: Have you found a big bowl of Lucky Charms ?; 9/13/17, 7:59 AM
SeanF said...: Trivia time - a rainbow is actually not merely an arc, it's a full circle. It's just that most of the circle is obscured by the ground (as rhhardin points out, you can see full circular rainbows from airplanes). As such, there is nothing at the end of a rainbow, because a rainbow doesn't have ends.

However, since a rainbow is a complete circle, what it does have is a center.

So, the trivia question is - what's at the center of a rainbow?; 9/13/17, 9:11 AM
Fernandinande said...: Eleanor said...
There was a full rainbow that arched across the highway, and we rode under it.

That's physically impossible.; 9/13/17, 9:13 AM
tcrosse said...: So, the trivia question is - what's at the center of a rainbow?

Universal Free Health Care.; 9/13/17, 9:50 AM
SeanF said...: tcrosse: Universal Free Health Care.

Good one. :)

There is an actual answer to my question, though. There's something real at the center of the rainbow - well, something as "real" as the rainbow itself, at any rate.; 9/13/17, 11:04 AM
John Evans said...: There is an actual answer to my question, though. There's something real at the center of the rainbow - well, something as "real" as the rainbow itself, at any rate.

That would be the shadow of the observer's head, I think.; 9/13/17, 11:56 AM
SeanF said...: Correct, John.; 9/13/17, 1:11 PM