You're Probably Wrong About Rainbows
Derek Muller
Why rainbows are optical illusions unique to each observer, and the real physics behind this everyday phenomenon.
Why we picked this
The kind of video that makes you realize how little you understand about things you see every day. Classic Veritasium.
You’ve seen hundreds of rainbows in your life. You can probably explain the basics — light refracts through water droplets, splits into colors. But Derek Muller makes the case that almost everything you think you know about rainbows is either incomplete or flat-out wrong.
The real physics involves optical caustics, the geometry of individual droplets, and a fascinating consequence that most people never consider: no two people ever see the same rainbow. Your rainbow is literally unique to your position in space. The person standing next to you is seeing light from entirely different droplets.
Muller’s gift is taking something familiar and making it strange again, then making the strange version more beautiful than the simple one ever was. This is 25 minutes of that gift at full power.