๐Ÿƒ Wonderleaf

A Wonderleaf question

What makes a rainbow?

What makes a rainbow?

a real page from the book

A rainbow forms when sunlight enters raindrops, bends, reflects inside, and leaves split into colors. Each color bends by a slightly different amount, so your eyes receive a neat band instead of plain white light. You need rain ahead and the Sun behind you.

Every rainbow is personal in a funny way. If you step aside, your eyes meet light from different drops. The arc keeps its order because red reaches you from one angle and violet from another, with countless drops acting like tiny prisms for a moment.

Wonder words

  • rainbow
  • sunlight
  • prism
  • angle

Try it out

Hold a clear glass of water near a sunny window and look for small colors on nearby paper.

Read the whole picture book

Watercolour scenes, straight answers, about three minutes cover to cover.

Open the picture book

One more wonder: Why is space so dark?

And the next question?

Ask anything โ€” Wonderleaf writes and illustrates a picture book for it. That's the whole idea.

Ask your own question

The next wonder, by email

A new question goes up every Sunday evening. We email it to you Monday morning, free to read that week.

One wonder a week, nothing else, ever. Unsubscribe in one click.