Strange Phobias - My fear of rainbows

[Gluey]

This is why I feel a bit of guilt from laughing at Pickle Girl and Cotton Ball Lady from The Maury Show but I still laugh becuase they can never scare me inside a studio like that. Their missing sun and rain. Maury just couldn't cut it.

I have a confession to make. I have Iridophobia (fear of rainbows) I have all my life. Only real rainbows though. Pictures and ones painted on walls only make me cringe and put me in discomfort. I used to be scared of pictures of rainbows when I was younger. I had my share of being made fun of when at school a rainbow showed up and I freaked out and cried. Than kids were drawing rainbows on their hands and flashing them at me. They screamed "Rainbow! Rainbow! Rainbow girl!"
I had an experience as a child when I saw double rainbows on the front lawn. They seemed very close (around 20 feet) so it frightened me but I was still scared of them but seeing them that close a curious fear turned into a phobia.
Now-a-days I keep it under control. It's not so bad but if that close double rainbow thing happens again I would probably go into shock.
I can look at them from inside. They don't scare me when I'm inside but they do if I'm outside especially if I'm by myself I will panic and look for shelter like a bomb is gonna fall.

I'm scared of them becuase there mysterious and weird. The way they re-appear  and evaporate. When I  little their was the same rainbow in the same spot in our back yard that would keep re-spawning in the same area every time the weather would go into sun and rain. I remember getting an adrenalin rush from spraying rainbows with a spray bottle. Another weird thing was I would quickly touch them while the spray lasted. Than I'd cry and rub my hands on the deck railing...but...later on when I sprayed near the railing I saw rainbow hand prints! I'm not fucking kidding. I remember this shit when it happened. I knew the difference between reality and imagination.
Their HUGE. They look like their watching you. The way their a big massive arc stretching over entire cities.

It's not just rainbows. Things in the sky make me become submissive. I can't sleep under the stars knowing that their giant balls of fire bigger than our sun and  more powerful than any nuclear weapon on earth. I also fear Jupiter and Saturn.

This video freaks me out but truly amazes me. It blows my mind.

[vodz]

 

[Phlexor]

You do know how rainbows are formed, right?

[enronh]

You do know how rainbows are formed, right?

Me! Me! Me!  Magic and spider webs! Right?

[Callaway]

We have lots of double rainbows where I live, so this might not be a good place for you to visit.

If a scientific explanation will help, then here's a pretty good explanation of double rainbows:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2279/what-causes-double-rainbows

While on vacation recently our family saw a double rainbow. How do these occur? Why did the second faint rainbow (which was on top of the first) have the opposite color sequence?

— nyount

Ah, rainbows – those will-o'-the-wisps of ethereal beauty, made possible only by a full lineup of optics phenomena. Let's run down the list:

1. Refraction. When a ray of sunlight strikes a raindrop, the ray refracts, or bends, at the point where it passes out of the air and into the water of the drop. The angle of the bend is determined by (a) the intrinsic light-transmitting properties of air and water (every transparent substance has its own individual index of refraction) and (b) the angle at which the ray strikes the surface of the spherical droplet – whether, e.g., it hits the drop squarely or strikes a glancing blow off to one side.

2. Dispersion. Meanwhile, the drop is acting as a prism, splitting the white light of the ray into its component colors by refracting the different wavelengths at different angles: red wavelengths bend a certain amount, orange wavelengths a slightly different amount, and so on.

3. Internal reflection. Most of the light striking the raindrop passes straight through it and out the far side, but some of it reflects off the rear interior surface of the drop and is sent in some new direction. The ratio of light transmitted to light reflected is, once again, a function of the angle at which the ray hits the surface.

4. Refraction and dispersion, part 2. When the reflected light exits the drop and re-enters the air, it's refracted and dispersed a second time.

Light rays emitted by the sun are effectively parallel when they reach the earth, and raindrops are effectively all the same shape. So when sunlight shines into a sky full of raindrops, it's encountering millions of tiny, very similar spherical prisms and interacting with each in pretty much the same way: each produces a basically identical pattern of refracted, dispersed, reflected, and re-refracted light in a spectrum of colors. The reflected red light is at its greatest intensity at an angle of 42 degrees from the direction of the sun's rays, while the violet light has maximum intensity at 40 degrees. When you face a rainy sky with the sun at your back you see a ring of red light, forming the outer edge of the rainbow, at 42 degrees from the direction of the sunlight, a violet ring at 40 degrees forming its inner edge, and all the other colors of the spectrum in between. The rainbow is entirely an optical illusion; it changes its apparent position in the sky as you change your vantage point, meaning that no two people are ever seeing a rainbow the same way (and explaining why that pot of gold is so elusive). Also, because the light forming the rainbow is reflected at angles of 40 to 42 degrees, for the most part rainbows are seen only during the hours around sunrise and sunset: if the sun is higher than 42 degrees in the sky the rainbow reflected by the raindrops will be below the horizon for an observer at ground level. You get better viewing at greater altitude, and it's possible to see complete circular rainbows from an airplane.

Now, about double rainbows: What's happening here is that the ray of sunlight bounces twice off the back interior surface of the raindrop before re-emerging into the air. The second reflection inverts the order of the colors – the secondary violet band forms at 54 degrees, the red band at 50.5 degrees – so the secondary rainbow appears above the primary one, with red on the inner edge and violet on the outer. Because the twice-reflected light has had two chances to be transmitted out the back of the raindrop rather than reflected back toward the observer, the secondary bow is much fainter than the primary and frequently cannot be seen at all; it's typical for a secondary rainbow to be visible only at certain points along the arc.

If the light is strong enough to remain visible after being reflected three times inside the raindrop, an even fainter tertiary rainbow can sometimes be seen (at least in part) above the secondary one, with the red back on the outside and the violet on the inside. And rumor has it that it's occasionally possible to see a quadruple rainbow.

Nitpickers will ask: What about diffraction? Doesn't it play a role here too? All I have to say is (a) yes, diffraction – a quantum phenomenon where light waves cancel each other out or amplify one another – sometimes figures in rainbow formation, if the raindrops are small enough, in which case (b) all bets are off – you might get smaller rainbows inside the main bow, you might get rainbows with the red in the middle – but (c) no way am I going to work out the math for this. If you're desperate to know this kind of stuff, well, that's why they invented physics grad programs.

[Parts]

Rainbows don't bother me but deep water really freaks me out not sure what that one is called though

[Gluey]

We have lots of double rainbows where I live, so this might not be a good place for you to visit.

If a scientific explanation will help, then here's a pretty good explanation of double rainbows:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2279/what-causes-double-rainbows

While on vacation recently our family saw a double rainbow. How do these occur? Why did the second faint rainbow (which was on top of the first) have the opposite color sequence?

— nyount

Ah, rainbows – those will-o'-the-wisps of ethereal beauty, made possible only by a full lineup of optics phenomena. Let's run down the list:

1. Refraction. When a ray of sunlight strikes a raindrop, the ray refracts, or bends, at the point where it passes out of the air and into the water of the drop. The angle of the bend is determined by (a) the intrinsic light-transmitting properties of air and water (every transparent substance has its own individual index of refraction) and (b) the angle at which the ray strikes the surface of the spherical droplet – whether, e.g., it hits the drop squarely or strikes a glancing blow off to one side.

2. Dispersion. Meanwhile, the drop is acting as a prism, splitting the white light of the ray into its component colors by refracting the different wavelengths at different angles: red wavelengths bend a certain amount, orange wavelengths a slightly different amount, and so on.

3. Internal reflection. Most of the light striking the raindrop passes straight through it and out the far side, but some of it reflects off the rear interior surface of the drop and is sent in some new direction. The ratio of light transmitted to light reflected is, once again, a function of the angle at which the ray hits the surface.

4. Refraction and dispersion, part 2. When the reflected light exits the drop and re-enters the air, it's refracted and dispersed a second time.

Light rays emitted by the sun are effectively parallel when they reach the earth, and raindrops are effectively all the same shape. So when sunlight shines into a sky full of raindrops, it's encountering millions of tiny, very similar spherical prisms and interacting with each in pretty much the same way: each produces a basically identical pattern of refracted, dispersed, reflected, and re-refracted light in a spectrum of colors. The reflected red light is at its greatest intensity at an angle of 42 degrees from the direction of the sun's rays, while the violet light has maximum intensity at 40 degrees. When you face a rainy sky with the sun at your back you see a ring of red light, forming the outer edge of the rainbow, at 42 degrees from the direction of the sunlight, a violet ring at 40 degrees forming its inner edge, and all the other colors of the spectrum in between. The rainbow is entirely an optical illusion; it changes its apparent position in the sky as you change your vantage point, meaning that no two people are ever seeing a rainbow the same way (and explaining why that pot of gold is so elusive). Also, because the light forming the rainbow is reflected at angles of 40 to 42 degrees, for the most part rainbows are seen only during the hours around sunrise and sunset: if the sun is higher than 42 degrees in the sky the rainbow reflected by the raindrops will be below the horizon for an observer at ground level. You get better viewing at greater altitude, and it's possible to see complete circular rainbows from an airplane.

Now, about double rainbows: What's happening here is that the ray of sunlight bounces twice off the back interior surface of the raindrop before re-emerging into the air. The second reflection inverts the order of the colors – the secondary violet band forms at 54 degrees, the red band at 50.5 degrees – so the secondary rainbow appears above the primary one, with red on the inner edge and violet on the outer. Because the twice-reflected light has had two chances to be transmitted out the back of the raindrop rather than reflected back toward the observer, the secondary bow is much fainter than the primary and frequently cannot be seen at all; it's typical for a secondary rainbow to be visible only at certain points along the arc.

If the light is strong enough to remain visible after being reflected three times inside the raindrop, an even fainter tertiary rainbow can sometimes be seen (at least in part) above the secondary one, with the red back on the outside and the violet on the inside. And rumor has it that it's occasionally possible to see a quadruple rainbow.

Nitpickers will ask: What about diffraction? Doesn't it play a role here too? All I have to say is (a) yes, diffraction – a quantum phenomenon where light waves cancel each other out or amplify one another – sometimes figures in rainbow formation, if the raindrops are small enough, in which case (b) all bets are off – you might get smaller rainbows inside the main bow, you might get rainbows with the red in the middle – but (c) no way am I going to work out the math for this. If you're desperate to know this kind of stuff, well, that's why they invented physics grad programs.

I already knew. but thank you.
I tend to study my phobias.
I went through a Tornado phobia and what did I do?
Watch tornado chasers on TV of course.

[Callaway]

I already knew. but thank you.
I tend to study my phobias.
I went through a Tornado phobia and what did I do?
Watch tornado chasers on TV of course.

I did something similar with my snake phobia, but I also did hypnosis and I think that it helped.

[duncvis]

when I opened this thread I thought it must be that you thought the leprechauns were after yer Lucky Charms.

[Phlexor]

when I opened this thread I thought it must be that you thought the leprechauns were after yer Lucky Charms.

Ya just need to lay down some bear traps for those short little fuckers.

[garmonbozia]

I already knew. but thank you.
I tend to study my phobias.
I went through a Tornado phobia and what did I do?
Watch tornado chasers on TV of course.

I used to be afraid of bad weather.  The tornado drills back in elementary school were a little too melodramatic, like air raid drills.  From then on I was afraid of weather that might spawn tornados.  Here's how I dealt with it...  Years later, I had a fucking tornado rip through the front yard and then go rip the roof off a neighbor's house.  (Well, I didn't have it rip through the front yard.  The front yard just happened to be in its path.)  It was night and I didn't know what was going on at the time.  The Weather Radio went off with a tornado warning, so I knew one was in the area, just not how close.  Apparently, real close.  We went outside afterward and saw the mess it left.  Cleared that fear right up.  My crazy bitch of an aunt was there.  She was even more afraid of weather, and it was worth it to see her scared shitless.  I could barely hear the Weather Radio because she wouldn't shut up.  Maybe that's why I didn't realize how close it was.

[Jesse]

I'm sorry about your strange phobia but damn, did it make me laugh. 

["couldbecousin"]

when I opened this thread I thought it must be that you thought the leprechauns were after yer Lucky Charms.

I'm the Jolly Leprechaun Weeble of the Aspie Elite, and other leprechauns always ARE after me Lucky Charms! 

[Al Swearegen]

Gluey was nuts

["couldbecousin"]

Gluey was nuts

  Can't have any nuts here!