I saw the end of a rainbow! It was right by me!

[Hopefulatlunchtime]

I did not think this was possible! Being as rainbows are optical illusions I always thought they looked far away, but this one was really, really close and I could see the end of it, right by me as I drove past, at the edge of some local woods. I could not stop on the road I was on to get out and run to it.

Which has me thinking. If I had, what would have happened? Would it have always looked a bit further away or could I have actually walked into it? Or would it have disappeared as I got close to it?

Does anyone know?

I don’t but am interested to know!

It just moves further away, that's the point! The position of the rainbow depends on your position relative to the sun and how the light's diffracted. If you move the angle between you and the sun changes so the rainbow moves. if you see a rainbow which ends on a distant house the people in the house don't see the rainbow in the same position.

No idea, but give us your coordinates and I'll be there to start digging.

You would of disappeared into leprechaun land

To visit the gray folk!

I have seen the end of a rainbow really close and there was no pot of gold but it was really beautiful and it came right in front of the trees to the ground.

I wonder what is the closest is that you can ever 'be' to a rainbow then?

Bit disappointed. I liked the idea of wandering into all the coloured light!

(And yes, I was crap at physics at school. Dropped it age 13/14!)

Yes it was like this. It went right into the trees and scrub at the end of the woods. It was really, really beautiful.

My seven year old is a bit pissed I did not start digging to get lots of gold so he could have a nintendo switch : )

You can be in it but only from someone else's point of view.

Oh my God, that's so interesting. So someone else could see me in a rainbow?!

That would be so cool to see someone in a rainbow. So if I had stopped and I had a friend with me, I could have sent them over into it and I would have seen them in it? Could I have taken a photo showing that?

Light strikes water droplets at a precise angle, and that is what you see. If you move, the angle changes and the rainbow appears to move too, relative to where you are viewing it from. You can't get any nearer. It is an optical phenomenon.

There is no end of the rainbow.

Yes! Think about it, if you'd had somebody with you today you could have sent them over in the right direction and phoned them to tell them they were in the right spot. You could even have got them to start digging for gold! 😂

@quivers that might be what text books and physics say but (feel free to sing if you watch Uncanny) I know what I saw!!

But I did get nearer. I was driving when it appeared and I thought, 'gosh I have never seen such a big close rainbow' and I was driving towards it and drove past where it ended - I could see it going into the trees and scrub at the edge of the wood.

I saw the end of one too last week at the park, no gold though!

Rainbows aren't an optical illusion...

I saw one of these, it was actually a a double rainbow! A few weeks ago by my house. You can just make out the rainbow touching the grass in from of the bushes

Aren't rainbows circles? How can you see the end if they're continuous?

Because half the circle is effectively underground.

You might see a round one if you were up a massive mountain, I think.

I drove underneath one this morning!

If you're at ground level the perceived 'bottom half' of the circle would be below the ground, unless it was a distant rainbow under certain conditions, in which case (I think) it would be below the horizon. You only see them as a circle from above.

We had a beautiful rainbow today, the colours were so bright.

I know someone who saw a round rainbow!

So what are they? Optical phenomena like PP said? And what's the difference?

Really?! Wow! That would be brilliant!