Why Are There So Many Songs About Rainbows?

September 26, 2023
Stoney's British Pub

3007 Concord Pike
Wilmington, DE

7:30pm

Phil Nelson
University of Pennsylvania
“Why Are There So Many Songs About Rainbows?”
 

Rainbows have a deep hold on the human imagination. Everyone throughout classical antiquity had ideas about rainbows, but no real progress got made until René Descartes; even thereafter, rainbows spurred breakthroughs in physics and math, all the while teasing us with their beauty. For example, the photo shows some extra structure, plainly visible yet never depicted by artists, that clobbered Isaac Newton’s theory of light. Let’s see where rainbows can lead us today.