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Moonbow.

fairsheet

Senator
I listened to an interview with one of the dudes who was rescued from that capsized rowboat out in the middle of the Atlantic. He was asked about some of the neater things he saw out there (before they capsized!). At the top of his list, was a "moonbow" and/or "lunar rainbow". As the names suggest, it's a rainbow at night.

That got me to questioning. Does a rainbow - or moonbow exist in and of itself? Or, does it only exist as a function of the human eye and brain?
 

MaryAnne

Governor
I thought a rainbow came from the sun shining through the moisture. I will ask my Grandson.He is the Science whiz!
 

fairsheet

Senator
Yes, the atmosphere splits the sun's light into its various components. But...light shines most everywhere and I've gotta believe that it's being split in all sorts of ways and places. This is sort of similar to the question of a tree falling in the forest, when no one's around to hear it. Does the rainbow depend upon the sun, rain, AND the human eye for its existence?
 

ARMCX1

Mayor
Your question gets to the heart of modern science's understanding of reality. Physics teaches that you can't separate the observer from the observed. Why do we wish to believe that a moonbow exists independent of it's being seen -- just like the sound of a tree falling when nobody's around or that the dinosaurs would have lived had humans never evolved? Our bias is that things exist independent of humanity's knowledge of them. That's the crux of your question.
 
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