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[–] 71 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Is the cross section of a cone not a circle, or semi circle in this case since we only see part of the "cone"?

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  • [–] 11 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Right, your point is taken but the point is more to explain the full portion of the rainbow. Not just the section you see.

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  • [–] 10 points 5 months ago

    Every person sees a rainbow in a different location because rainbows are an optical phenomenon not a real object - in that sense rainbows are occupying the entire space, not just a cone even. The expansion is dumb.

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  • [–] 22 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    The pot of gold was inside us the whole time

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  • [–] 17 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    I like how in the first image that guy is in an ‘absolutely pissed about it’ stance

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  • [–] 13 points 5 months ago

    My old apartment used to be set up in just such a way that after a midday shower, you would see a small Brocken Spectre’s centered around each of your eyes when you looked in the mirror. It was honestly kind of terrifying. The first time I noticed it, I wondered if I’d finally lost it.
    Glowing circles around your black eyes in a fogged mirror.

    I think that means I have the opposite of a pot of gold in me.

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  • [–] 12 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Then why are we not calling it a raincone? 🤔

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    Even if it was a semi-circle, why would we call it a bow? It doesn't look like a bow for archery, a bow for music, or a bow for fashion. 🤷‍♂️

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  • [–] 11 points 5 months ago

    I think the use of the word bow for curve or bend was used before all of the uses you mention. It comes from the word used to describe something turning back or a person taking a bow or bowing down. Bow specifically meaning bend comes from the word bugan. Where the bow used in archery comes from the word boga.

    All of these do have the same origin meaning bend or curve. Specifically a bend in a river or the action of bowing. I can't find definitively if these were once separate things or always the same word.

    Note the use of "arch" in archery also meaning a curve.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    A violin bow is made from a curved piece of wood, the same as the weapon.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (1 child)

    Yes, but curved does not mean circular. Do either bows have constant curvature?

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    OK? But we're not calling archery bows and violin bows circular; we're calling them bows i.e. curved. And we're calling the rainbow a bow, i.e. curved, which it is. Curved does not imply circular, but circular does imply curved.

    Besides, I don't think the proto-indo-europeans were out there with calipers measuring the precise curvature of objects they decided to label with the *bheug- root.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    But why is it at that distance specifically? Can I get closer to a rainbow and see it become bigger? Why is there a 42° angle in the picture?

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  • [–] 12 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    That's the angle at which light is reflected by water droplets. The drawing is incorrect in that the cone is horizontal while the light appears to come from a higher angle. The cone is always directly opposite to the direction of the light source. Here's a better drawing, with more reading about what exactly is going on.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    My treasure is lifelong depression. Yay.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago*

    I like being gay on the inside. It's really the only place I'm allowed to be gay.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago

    Now I need this for sun dogs.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago

    Look look! 42

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago

    Shit, that's neat.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    That sounds like something a leprechaun would say...

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Why does it appear at the distance that it does?

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    If everyone is special, then no one is.

    A rainbow is a participation award.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    Once i was driving a rig through ohio eastbound and seen a rainbow ahead, and they're hard to predict with the untrained eye, but i said to myself, fuckin hilarious if i hit the end of the rainbow a couple miles west of Columbus.

    And that is where i personally saw the end of a rainbow, like that spectral vision dropped into the middle of I-70, where traffic was fucked from collisions because people were you know

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Some of us more than others.

    _>

    <_<

    _>

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    Awww, this just made all of the horrible things in the world disappear!

    Nah, it didn't.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago*

    Wait… is a rainbow not actually there? It’s just something that happens in our eyes when the light hits it at the right angle or something

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    Interesting choice, including the 3rd order rainbow in the middle picture there...

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