The abstract of a talk by
Alistair B. Fraser
Professor of Meteorology,
The Pennsylvania State University
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Bifrost*: The Rainbow Bridge
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My heart leaps up, when I behold A rainbow in the sky So was it when my life began So is it now I am a man So be it when I shall grow old Or let me die |
For over two and a half millennia, the rainbow has played an important role in both the inspiration of and testing of new ideas of the physical world. Interest in the rainbow, however, was not confined to scientists. Almost everybody considered that it was his own phenomenon and so it is treated extensively by the worlds of mythology, religion, the fine arts and commercial as well as physics. Many religions treat the bow as a bridge between heaven and earth, across which the gods travel to instruct man, or across which man travels at death. As a bridge, though, it also serves to link the disparate perceptions that are held of natural phenomena by the different segments of culture.
Even in the present age, the rainbow carries an overburden of allegory that inhibits curiosity into it as a natural phenomenon. As artistic renditions will testify, most people can deal with the rainbow (and by extension the rest of the inanimate nature) only as a symbol for the human condition. The prevailing view of the physical world can best be described as a fantasy. Once a child has learned a fantastic view of the world (the laws of Physics as dictated by Saturday-morning cartoons and video games) science education involves, not learning, but relearning. The public perceptions of the rainbow serves as a microcosm of the public perception of the rest of the physical world.
This highly illustrated talk explores the disparate cultural views of the rainbow to provide a metaphorical bridge between the public's and the scientist's perceptions of nature.
* Bifrost (biv'-roast) n. Norse mythology: the rainbow bridge between heaven and earth.
- References
- Alistair B. Fraser, 1972: Inhomogeneities in the Color and Intensity of the Rainbow. J. Atmos. Sci. 29, 211-212.
- Alistair B. Fraser, 1983: Chasing Rainbows: Numerous Supernumeraries are Super. Weatherwise, 36, 8, 280-289. (invited paper).
- Alistair B. Fraser, 1983: Why can supernumerary bows be seen in a rain shower? J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73, 12, 1626-1628.
- Raymond L. Lee, Jr. and Alistair B. Fraser, 1990: The light at the end of the rainbow. (an invited paper). New Scientist, 127, 1732, 40-44.
- Craig F. Bohren and Alistair B. Fraser, 1991: Newton's Zero-Order Rainbow: Unobservable or Nonexistent? American Journal of Physics, 59, 4, 325-26.
- Alistair B. Fraser, 1983: Chasing Rainbows: Numerous Supernumeraries are Super. Weatherwise, 36, 8, 280-289. (invited paper).