- Dad... why are rainbows curved? - Give me a couple of weeks to answer it

Just beautiful, happy to be able to help

The rate of Veritasium and Mentour Pilot Video drops these past couple of weeks and yet with top quality delivery literally is out of this world. Edit: Wow.. 9k likes unbelievable

I’m an optometrist and this is probably the best animation/display on optics I’ve ever seen. I wish they taught in schools like this. Simply incredible work 👏

14:55 *Burns the finger* "Ouch! This thing is a ffFFffffocal" 😁

Son: "Dad, why are rainbows curved?" Derek: "You'll have to wait until I finish productionizing a 27m video in order to get to know the answer."

So another example of 42 being the fundamental answer to everything. Awesome video! As always

I’d never been satisfied with the simple “sunlight is scattered by water droplets” explanation as it felt like it left too many questions; this video has answered every one of those questions, succinctly and comprehensively. Incredibly well done!

Your explanation was so good that at 18:45 when you said 'why is it brighter under a rainbow than above?', I already knew the answer, despite not even being aware of such a phenomenon 20 minutes ago. That's the hallmark of a great explanation.

I work in optics and have two degrees in the field. I’ve heard explanations of the rainbow multiple times, whether in class or at conferences, and can say that this one is certainly one of the best: both because it deals with the maths both (relatively) comprehensively and intuitively, and (more importantly) it really speaks to the curious, awe stricken child in all of us very effectively. He even snuck in a (very) simplified explanation of light-matter interaction and refractive index just to make sense of the differing emergent angles for different wavelengths. Bravo!

4:18 He said all other videos about the rainbow are oversimplifications, so to be true to his word, he asked 3B1B for permission to use the most detailed explanation for electromagnetic waves and refraction that I know of as his source. Absolute legends, both of you.👍

"Yoooo... what the heck is this tiny rainbow?" 2 years later "I have discovered a way to detect and *observe* particles that were previously only theorized to exist." Madlad.

Veritasium has really become one of the best YouTube channels in the world. The consistency and quality of uploads is simply astonishing.

I am an optical engineer and at the end of one of our optics courses the prof gave us a 90 minute lecture on the topic of rainbows. It was incredible and convinced me to do something with light in my professional life. Your visual explanations gave birth to that what the prof taught us 15ish years ago. Thank you!

Derek: "I must ponder my orb." Slightly burned Derek: "Okay, done now."

almost brought tears to my eyes when you concluded with “and that, my son…” i think it’s beautiful that what fuelled you to make this video for the whole world to see is your quest to thoroughly answer question from your own child. thank you

Using advanced CGI to illustrate light reflection is awesome, using a red tether to illustrate constructive/destructive interference was out of this world!

This almost made me cry. Having a parent that loves learning as much as they love teaching has to be one of the greatest gifts on earth. Gaining the knack for inquiry makes living so beautiful.

Your videos are far better than any physics teacher in the world. In the chaos of martial law in South Korea, the rainbow you created have moved me for a moment.

Superb video, Derek! I also researched this topic about a month ago: Your explanations, experiments and simulations are just excellent, especially for Glories and supernumeraries. If you ever revisit this topic, here are some comments: * the Sun is not a point source, so the angular size of ~half a degree is spreading/averaging everything out over such an angle, making 1st and 2nd order supernumeraries the most likely to be visible, not much else; * fogbows and halos were left out; *2nd order color inversion didn't get its attention, and 3rd and 4th order rainbows i tried to simulate, but always failed, they have immense forward scattering levels behind and probably never visible; * refractive index depends on temperature - the angle is slightly different for rain of different temperature; * red color is purest in the rainbow, everything else is more like a mix and the blue and violet part is especially unpure; * there is another place in the solar system where rainbows might appear - methane rain on Titan - totally different angles and 2nd order nonexistent probably; *color sensitivity of the eye could also be mentioned plus NIR and UV parts; *reflection rainbow from mirror-flat body of water could also be interesting to show. All in all - by far the best video of rainbow physics that i ever saw!!!