Refraction Of Rainbows

Exotic Canada: Alberta souvenir news you can use

Put a Ring On It  The unusually hued Ammolite is Alberta’s official gemstone, mined in communities such as Canmore, and its colorations can vary from red to violet thanks to light refraction. The cheerful rainbow stone can be found in many gift shops, but for more contemporary, understated baubles, check out Coup (as in coup de foudre, or love at first sight) garment boutique in Edmonton, set among the independent shops and cafés in the historical Warehouse District on the downtown 4th Street Promenade. The new shop carries such westerly designers as Obakki, from Vancouver, and local jewellery such as Cara Cotter’s So Pretty line ( coupboutique.com ).

Do-Si-Do It   Howdy, pardner! Three generations of the Gerwing family have crafted custom and ready-to-wear traditional Western boots for both everyday folk and visiting dignitaries (like Prince Charles back in 1977 and now newlyweds Wills and Kate, this weekend). At their Alberta Boot Company shop and showroom, they also make the famous red Strathcona dress police boots for the Mounties, (at 50 50th Ave. S. in Calgary, albertaboot.com). Cowgirls in the know opt for pairs featuring the Edmonton stitch, a curvy butterfly pattern. Handmade boots only get better with age, but the best place to start breaking them in is a two-step at Cowboys, the local country bar.

Wear It   Architect by day and fashion designer by night, Lara Presber opened her namesake style boutique last year. Her modernist, intellectual womenswear designs are inspired by interesting structures and sculpture and just one of the handful of local designers who are part of the Fashion Central hub in downtown Calgary (8th Avenue Southwest and Stephen, fashioncentral.ca). The community includes a collaborative vintage shop and local label Motek Clothing’s more casual funky attire.

Eat It   Since 1983, cacao fanatics across the country have flocked to the confections of master chocolatier Bernard Callebaut, the great-grandson of Belgian chocolatier Eugenius Callebaut. You can bring a sweet souvenir boîte home thanks to the several locations of Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut peppered across the province (there are 10 in Calgary alone). Callebaut’s flavour pairings are inventive (the Canadienne truffle mixes maple syrup with white chocolate ganache) and you can stock up on baking bars, jars of his signature Karamel sauce or select assorted truffles like moccachino and cinnamon ginger in a custom ballotin.

In Rainbows « Blog Archive « North Atlantic Skyline

Rainbows are caused by both the reflection and refraction of light. As rain falls, some of the sunlight shining on raindrops gets reflected, as each raindrop acts like a tiny mirror. Each raindrop also acts as a tiny prism, so the reflected light is also refracted. The amount of refraction depends on the wavelength of the light. Each colour in the visible light spectrum has a slightly different wavelength, which causes each colour to be refracted differently in a raindrop. That is why we can see the different colours in a rainbow. The picture above was taken early yesterday morning in Salthill – you can see the Burren hills in the background. It shows a few different phenomenon relating to rainbows. The first is obviously the rainbow itself – the really bright one.  Secondly, a second fainter rainbow can be seen further out (with the colour pattern reversed) – that is a secondary rainbow caused by secondary refraction within the raindrops. It is not an unusual occurrence – I’ve seen double rainbows lots of times. What is unusual is the third phenomenon visible in the picture – what looks like a middle rainbow at a different angle to the other two. This is a reflection rainbow, caused by sunlight reflecting off a large body of still water – in this case, a very calm Galway Bay.  The sunlight  reflects first off the sea and then hits the falling raindrops from below, causing a different refraction [and therefore different shaped rainbow] to occur. Reflection rainbows always intersect with ‘ordinary’ rainbows at the horizon. In this picture, there is actually a secondary reflection rainbow, though it is very faint [it also has the colour band in reverse order].

The beauty of a rainbow is literally in the eye of the beholder – the location of a rainbow is dependent on the observer. A rainbow always appears directly opposite the sun, so an observer always has his/her back to the sun when looking at a rainbow. If you were to draw a triangle between yourself, the top of your shadow and a point on the rainbow, the angle facing you would always be between 40 and 42 degrees, for the primary rainbow and between 50 and 53 degrees for the secondary rainbow..  For reflection rainbows, the angles are the same [for primary and secondary rainbows] – the shape is different because the light is coming from the ground [i.e. a still body of water] rather than directly from the sun in the sky.

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