First Anniversary in Hubpages – Celebrating with Rainbow Colors
A year ago, I learned about Hubpages from a photo website that I follow. I tentatively dipped my toes into the inviting waters and published my first hub on May 14, 2009. At that time I was exploring new grounds. I looked at everything with a skip in my steps and a song in my heart. And that’s how my first hub was titled - Song in My Heart. http://hubpages.com/hub/Song-in-my-heart
Now, to celebrate my 1st year anniversary, I’d like to sing once more. This time I’d like to sing about rainbow colors since some of you (Shalini, Green Lotus, Coffeesnob) have dubbed me as “Countess of Color” and somebody (Peggy W) even promoted me to “Queen of Color”. What could be more fitting then than to celebrate my 1st anniversary in full color – the rainbow colors!
The Magic of Rainbows
For a magical experience, nothing beats seeing a rainbow in the sky for me. I always feel some kind of excitement and awe every time I see a rainbow in the sky. It’s as if the freshness of a new beginning is calling. The hint of some miracle about to happen is there. Sometimes, I even wonder if there is really a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Ha ha ha!
What about you, do you feel this magic too?
What is there about Rainbows that spells M-A-G-I-C?
Is it the arc or is it the colors that make rainbows magical?
This started me thinking. So I thought about arcs alone without the colors and tried to see if I feel some kind of magic just looking at arcs.
Well, there is the famous “arc de triomphe” in Paris or St. Louis Arch, or even McDonalds double arc.
When I look at these arcs, I feel some kind of awe at the massiveness of the structure. However, there is no feeling of magic. By elimination then, it must be the colors that make rainbows magical? Yes, I think it’s the colors that make rainbows magical. If that is so, then we can therefore create some magical atmosphere if we use rainbow colors. Right?
So why not create our own rainbow colors? Why not, indeed? But first, let’s examine how rainbow colors come about.
Just a Review about the Making of a Rainbow
I already mentioned how rainbows are formed in my hub about sunset colors. http://hubpages.com/hub/What-Color-Is-Your-Sunset
Basically, rainbows form when there are enough water droplets in the sky. These droplets act like prisms.
When light, (which is made up of many wavelengths of light) enters a prism, it bends and separates into its component wavelengths and we see this as the colors of the rainbow. The violets and blues are the shorter wavelengths and the reds and yellows are the longer wavelengths.
The colors in the rainbow always follow the same sequence, starting from the outer - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet or ROY G BIV, the mnemonics we were taught in grade school.
So we see rainbows in the sky if the following are present:
a) moisture (water droplets),
b) sun shining from a certain angle, and
c) you, the observer, are between the sun and the water droplets.
In a rainbow, the red wavelength is always at the outer part of the arc and the violet wavelength is inner in the arc. However, if you see a double rainbow as what can happen sometimes, the colors of the second rainbow will be reversed. The violet will form the outer arc while the red will form the inner one.
So now that you understand rainbows, do you notice anything wrong in this Carebears picture?
Now, let’s make some magic. How would you like to make your own rainbow colors? Are you game?
How to make your own Rainbow Colors
If you want to have rainbows with their glorious color, you need not wait for the rain because there are several tricks to bring out those colors anytime you want them. All you need is a source of light (sunlight or flashlight) and water or some reflective material.
You can use either natural or synthetic materials and come up with beautiful rainbow colors.
A. Making Rainbow Colors with Natural Materials
- water as mist– look for sun rays filtering in your garden and create a mist as you water your plants. You can create mist by placing your finger over the end of the hose as you release the water. You will surely get some rainbows in the mist.
You also see rainbows in mists created by fountains or waterfalls.
- water in glass – fill a crystal glass with water and place this near a window with incoming light. Put a white sheet of paper behind the glass and move it a bit until you get rainbow colors on it.
B. Making Rainbow Colors with Synthetic Materials
- CD – hold a cd in front of any source of light (sunlight, flashlight) and tilt it at a certain angle until you get rainbow colors reflected on its surface or on a wall or paper. You can produce rainbows on your wall this way.
- water drops on cd - get a used cd and put this where it catches some angled light. Spray some water droplets on the cd. This time, the water droplets will also reflect the colors of the rainbow.
- soap bubbles – play with soap bubbles under the sun and observe how the bubbles reflect rainbow colors as they are about to disintegrate
Just a Little Bit of Science
The natural rainbow colors created by raindrops and other films of water work more on the principle of refraction with a bit of reflection while the rainbow colors created by the cd and soap bubbles work more on the principle of reflection.
Refraction is bending of light while reflection is bouncing back of light. We talked about how raindrops refract or bend light before, so let’s take up here how cds create rainbows through reflection.
When light hits the surface of a cd, the many ridges on the surface will reflect or bounce back the light waves in different patterns creating the rainbow colors.
Sometimes some of the bounced light waves will add up and create brighter colors. Other light waves may cancel each other and take away the color.
Soap bubbles especially those that are about to disintegrate, also have uneven thickness of surface. Light is therefore reflected in different ways and rainbow colors are also formed.
The same is true for that thin film of oil on the surface of water. The uneven thickness of the oil film also produces rainbow colors when light bounces from its surface.
Notice that mirrors also reflect light or bounce back light. However, since the surface of the mirror is smooth, flat, and has no ridges, all the bounced light waves just cancel out each other. So you only get white light and not rainbows from surfaces of mirrors. It is only possible to get rainbows from mirrors if you submerged the mirror in water. The water will then refract the light reflected from the mirror, and you will see rainbow colors.
Play with Rainbow Colored Things
One other way to surround yourself with rainbow colors is to play with rainbow colored things. These can include colored pencils, crayons, paints, oil pastels, wall papers, just to name a few.
Then of course you can use rainbow colored bed sheets, bags, socks, umbrellas, anything that adds rainbow colors to your world.
Quick Color Reference and their Meanings*
Red – Vitality, Passion, Courage
Orange –Creative Energy, Socialization, Endurance
Yellow – Wisdom, Communication, Happiness
Green –Balance, Nature, Renewal
Blue – Spirituality, Serenity, Truth
Indigo –Infinity, Meditation, Intuition
Violet – Spiritual mastery, Royalty, Mystery
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*Note - Only the positive meanings of the colors are listed here.
If you want a more in-depth analysis of colors, then check out this site given to me by my good friend anglnwu: http://www.deweycolorsystem.org/
Dedication
This hub is dedicated to my “colored friends” – those who indicated their color preference.
Red – katyzzz, LizzyBoo, Varenya
Orange –sspensley
Yellow – tim-tim, antonrosa, genrp
Green – Coffeesnob, Green Lotus, Paul_Gibsons
Blue/Indigo –anglnwu, CrisA, blue dog, regality,
Violet/Purple – Phebe, tony 0724, James Watkins, TattoGuy, I*n*v*i*c*t*u*s, poetlorraine, ladylibris
This hub is also for my other friends who did not indicate any color preference but have been with me through my 1 year adventure here in Hubpages. Thank you very much!
This is in no particular order:
Shalini, Ripplemaker, Habee, dohn121, cosette, tonymac04, D.A.L., Enelle Lamb, DeBorrah K Ogans, wavegirl22, emievil, Jerilee Wei, hypnodude, Amber Allen, Mystique1957, MM del Rosario, Peggy W, Red Elf, theherbivorehippi, franciaonline, Eileen Hughes, Dolores Monet, gramarye, Ann Nonymous, Ben Zoltak, Tatjana-Mihaela, heart4theword, HubCrafter, Sufidreamer, GeneralHowitzer, texashubber, Dream On, Storytellersrus, pinoyconnection, Montana Farm Girl, katiem2, Beth100, mwatkins, dayzeebee, stephicks68, doodspogi, Catlyn, suziecat7, frogyfish, J@ps, Putz Ballard, digitalexplorer, yoshi97, k@ri, Rebecca E, elayne001, JamaGenee, lorlie6, Connie Smith, talits2550, Beth100, Carmen Borthwick, christianesk, jstankevicz, Teresa Laurente, GypsyWillow, jadecircles, cgull8m, apricotmousse, dawei888, Halie Tep, raisingme, Sage Williams, Lee Thacker, Patti Ann, Lita Malicdem, IslandVoice, DoodleLyn, Art 4 Life, soni2006, QuirkyPearl, mod2vint, dyesebel10, Nolimits Nana, MoneyLady, FCEtier, samboiam, aoiffe379, Coolmon2009.
To my other followers/fans who I may have failed to mention, this hub is also for you. Without you, I will not have reached my 300 fans milestone.
Thank you too to my non-hubber friends and visitors. You all deserve rainbows in your life.
Thank you all very much. Thank you Hubpages!!!
First Anniversary Celebration
I wish to invite all of you to my 1st Anniversary Celebration – In Glorious Rainbow Color.
Ok everyone ... This is it ... Dim the lights ... let the drums roll ...
Let’s sing...
And here's a rainbow quote to end this hub.