Rainbow
彩虹
A rainbow is a circle of colors that appears in the sky when sunlight shines on raindrops.
彩虹是阳光照射到空气中的水滴里,发生光的色散和折射而形成的一种自然现象,雨后常见。
The sunlight and water work together to form rainbows.
阳光和水汽相互作用形成彩虹,
Think of sunlight flowing out in many lines, called rays.
想象下阳光散发出被称为光束的很多射线。
The rays are an equal distance from each other.
光束相互之间距离相等。
The light energy of the rays acts similar to waves, which have different lengths.
光束的能量的类似于有不同的长度的海浪。
Sunlight is made up of several wave lengths.
彩虹是由各种间距不等的色光组合而成的。
People see the mix of lengths as what is called white light.
人们看到的色光组合混合被称为白光。
But things change when a ray of white light hits a raindrop.
但是当一缕太阳光射入水滴时就会发生改变。
That is when the colors that make up white light slow to different speeds.
这是因为组成太阳光的各种色光会慢于不同的速度,
The light bends as it enters the raindrop.
然后在水滴里以不同的角度连续折射,
This bending separates the white light into colors,each color weakening as it moves into the next color.
这一折射将白光分成各种颜色,每种颜色在移动到下一个颜色时都会变弱。
The light rays turn or bend again when they come out of the raindrop.
光线从雨滴射出时会再次发生折射现象。
This continuous bending through an area of raindrops is what makes the rainbow a perfect circle.
于是这种不断的折射就形成了绚丽的彩虹。