You wish to know all about my grandfather. Well he is nearly ninety-three years old. He dresses himself in an ancient black frock coat usually minus several buttons yet he still thinks as swiftly as ever. A long flowing beard clings to his chin giving those who observe him a pronounced feeling of the utmost respect. When he speaks his voice is just a bit cracked and quivers a trifle. Twice each day he plays skillfully and with zest upon our small organ. Except in the winter when the ooze or snow or ice prevents, he slowly takes a short walk in the open air each day. We have often urged him to walk more and smoke less but he always answers “banana oil.” Grandfather likes to be modern in his language.
Throughout the centuries people have explained the rainbow in various ways. Some have accepted it as a miracle without physical explanation. To the Hebrews it was a token that there would be no more universal floods. The Greeks used to imagine that it was a sign from the gods to foretell war or heavy rain. The Norsemen considered the rainbow as a bridge over which the gods passed from earth to their home in the sky. Others have tried to explain the phenomenon physically. Aristotle thought that the rainbow was caused by reflection of the sun's rays by the rain. Since then physicists have found that it is not reflection but refraction by the raindrops which causes the rainbows.
Many complicated ideas about the rainbow have been formed. The difference in the rainbow depends considerably upon the size of the drops and the width of the colored band increases as the size of the drops increases. The actual primary rainbow observed is said to be the effect of super imposition of a number of bows. If the red of the second bow falls upon the green of the first the result is to give a bow with an abnormally wide yellow band since red and green light when mixed form yellow. This is a very common type of bow one showing mainly red and yellow with little or no green or blue.
added May 1, 2020