Conceptual Physics (12th Edition)

Published by Addison-Wesley
ISBN 10: 0321909100
ISBN 13: 978-0-32190-910-7

Chapter 28 - Think and Discuss - Page 542-543: 105

Answer

The airplane's shadow falls in the center of the circle.

Work Step by Step

As described on page 530, the rainbow you see is from droplets that lie within a 3-D cone, with your eye at the tip. When people on the airplane look down at a cloud of droplets, in a direction opposite from the sun, they may see a complete rainbow. As illustrated in Figure 28.33, a straight line can be passed through the sun, the observer's eye, and the center of the circular rainbow (i.e., this line is the axial line of symmetry for the 3-D cone). This means that the plane's shadow falls squarely in the center of the rainbow (or perhaps we should say it falls circularly in the center, lol?).
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