Video shows rainbows are actually circles, not arches, and your life will never be the same

Gianluca Mezzofiore
Updated

Since you were a child you've probably been led to believe that rainbows are half-circles, right? Well, appearances can be deceiving. 

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This video is like swallowing the red pill in Matrix. It was shot by a crane operator working on the 1,500 ft tall Lakhta Centre skyscraper in St Petersburg, Russia. It shows a wonderful, fully-circled rainbow that looks like a more basic, but still mesmerising, Stargate. 

Not to ruin all the magic, but the phenomenon has an easy explanation. In theory, every rainbow is a circle, but thanks to the Earth's curvature, only the upper half can be seen. Go to a higher point, like the top of a construction crane or an airplane, and rainbows are revealed to be a complete circle. 

"The circle (or half-circle) results because there are a collection of suspended droplets in the atmosphere that are capable concentrating the dispersed light at angles of deviation of 40-42 degrees relative to the original path of light from the sun," according to Physics Classroom. 

"These droplets actually form a circular arc, with each droplet within the arc dispersing light and reflecting it back towards the observer."

Mind-blowing.