On rainbows. Part 1

In modern physics one consideres [sic] the theory of rainbows to be a settled field of optics. All conventional optical theories (geometrical optics, wave optics and quantum physics) provide an [sic] unified understanding of rainbow phenomena. 

Thus is stated in this website, which was kindly recommended  to me by Dr. Markus Selmke, of Leipzig University, (even though he needn't have bothered, really, since I had been aware of that site long before the good Dr. took the time to point it to my attention some time last year). Thus is stated in that particular website and, more importantly, thus is believed in the conventional quarters. But I beg to differ, and I'm doing so for very good reasons. Nonetheless, and needless to say, my defiant attitude towards the conventional wisdom regarding the rainbow phenomena has been met with the same degree of contemptuousness and virulence as in my past endeavours of the kind, so I'd like to assure you, all and sundry, that there is nothing anyone can do to get beyond the thickness of my presently long-trained, well-adjusted skin.

I am a sceptic. I do not take anything in without subjecting it to careful scrutiny. Regardless of its source, origin, provenance, backing or accreditation. I am a sceptic and anything I choose to believe in must invariably pass the test of my own scrutiny. Period.

I was suspicious about the validity of the conventional understanding of rainbows ever since I first learned about it, which happened to be on January 1, 2015. I was suspicious especially about the ray tracing description of how, supposedly, the image of the rainbow comes to the eye of the observer. I'm basically referring here to the description that has remained with us since Descartes' time, of course.

But to an even greater extent I am referring here to the description that is depicted in the image below.

When it comes to dealing with the conventional description of the rainbow the plain and simple truth is that over the years I have had a pretty good degree of success, and that I have also acquired a commensurate degree of experience in the matter.  Take for instance the manner in which I resolved, and successfully defended, one of Newton's most prominent and unexplained prismatic conundrums--which was concerned with finding the reasons behind the known observation that the distribution of the spectral colours is reversed when a source of light is viewed directly through a prism, instead of being cast onto a screen.

Now I have talked extensively about that particular event in the past, but here I shall briefly touch on it once more, for two substantial new reasons. Firstly, because when I discussed it here and here and especially here I did it under a different set of circumstances and context. Secondly, because in the context of our current discussion that particular observation and the specific manner in which it was conventionally treated is more relevant than any other.

To see where I intend to go with this remember what I said earlier about the main reason for which I had become suspicious of the conventional description of rainbow formation-observation right from the very start of my initial foray into the mainstream understanding. Then, look carefully and ponder at the picture I am next dropping below.

And now think along with me.

I'm looking at the picture of a triangular prism which shows the spectrum created by a beam of light that entered it via a narrow, horizontal slit. As the spectrum in this picture shows an inverse (VBGYOR) distribution of colours instead of the usual (ROYGBV) display, Newton's only comment in regards to this particular observation was:

"Prismaticall colours appeare in the eye in a contrary order to that in which they fall on the paper".

Then I remember how more recently a number of very important conventional physicists tried desperately to show that there was in fact quite easy to explain--in the spirit of the reigning theoretical understanding--the spectral display above.

And then, more recently, I remember how a while ago I was browsing my saved emails and re-read all the emails I had received from Dr. Selmke. There was a lot to read. Dr. Selmke's emails were long, and involved. Nonetheless I went through all of them. When I finished I suddenly decided to answer to each and every single argument he raised. And that took a long time. He'd raised a lot of arguments. 

But I remember most recently how one day I took a good and hard (and long) look at all the staff I had gathered for my reply to Dr. Selmke's arguments and I felt satisfied that I had enough of it to begin laying it down.

Now, yesterday, I realised how long it would have taken me to write down everything I'd had in mind about that. And that took time. So I instantly decided that I wasn't to lay down and answer to every single argument raised by Markus Selmke. Instead, I will answer to all those arguments that I deem important enough to play decisive parts in the our optical saga. 

The body of conventional evidence regarding the rainbow phenomena is an amalgam of great diversity. And, fascinatingly--but hardly surprising--all those arguments whether great or small play decisive roles in the matter. Take for instance the conventional claim that sun's light rays are virtually running on parallel paths when they hit the earth. Now that may seem to some to be just a  minor issue in the play. I can tell you that it certainly seemed so to me for a long time. But the real truth is that it plays a major role, in the whole play. 

The subject of the supposedly parallel light rays is one that mystifies the common thinker. So much so that he continues to raise this issue in physics fora even though there is a prolific amount of conventional answers in that regard everywhere online. And one must wonder why that is so. After all, by all accounts it appears that no counterargument offered over the years against that particular belief has managed to raise even an eyebrow in the conventional quarters. Nonetheless, there is a very simple way to show why the idea of virtually parallel 

sun rays must be wrong. Watch carefully the video below.

The video is pretty much self-explanatory. Thus one can see that in the instances when divergent light was used the rainbow projected on the wall was quite well defined: it was perfectly round, with the spectral colours showing vividly all  along its circumference. That pacifying situation changed dramatically, however, as soon as I adjusted the focal length of my LED torch, collimating in the process the divergent light into a beam of reasonably parallel rays. Indeed, as soon as I rendered the light parallel the former well-defined rainbow with vivid spectral colours metamorphosed into a fairly diffuse circle of white light. Surprised? I have to confess that I too was a little surprised when I first saw it, before quickly realising that instead of getting surprised I should have anticipated that result well before any subsequent experiment. In fact I'm going to say that even our conventional physicists should have really made the same anticipation, even though they are still a fair distance behind in the race for knowledge and understanding of the optical phenomena. Let me explain why I said that.

Now, in as far as we are concerned the simple truth is that we have learned a long time ago that when it comes to the spatial distribution of the spectral colours in a beam of white light the reality is as clear as daylight: in any beam of white light the colours that makes it "white" are invariably marching in a specific order. That invariable order of spatial distribution is VBGYOR along the longitudinal axis. To us, there's not even a shadow of a doubt about that. To us that is a fact. An established and proven fact. So much so, in fact, that when I wrote about it (some ten years ago now) I called the simple experiment that confirmed it my own  personal experimentum crucis. To the conventional physicist, however, that fact has remained a gargantuan stumbling block and a prohibitive barrier to this day (in spite of all the many times and instances when that stultifying handicap rightfully came to bite them on the ass over and over again, over the years). (And, of course, that's not all either--for when you make such a poor decision in the past the longer you continue to hang on to it, the deeper, the lower and the further it will exile you into wilderness.)

A beam of white light, then, whose rays are running parallel to each other, it will only be able to convey and display just one colour at any given point for as long as it will remain parallel: White. No need to say any more than that.

On the other hand all light rays that are diverging spatially whilst travelling from one point to another will invariably display the full array of the spectral colours in the same, unadulterated VBGYOR order.

That's why a picture like the one I'm about to drop below will show those colours. Think about it for a few moments on your own whilst you'll be watching the picture below. Think about what I have just said a few moments ago, forget about what you have learned from the conventional physicist about diffraction, blah, blah, blah, and you should have little trouble making sense about the colours displayed. (The pic, btw, shows the result of a camera flashlight cast on the screen of a digital LED TV.)

Before moving on to another subject of great interest in the rainbows phenomena I just want to reassure those who might think that we've dealt a little too swiftly with the idea of virtually parallel sun rays that we shall come back to that topic very soon. Just as we'll also come back to the subject of diffraction, to be sure. For now though we'll turn our attention to another major sticking point in the common thinker's arsenal of questions. This particular subject is very important for anyone with a genuine desire to understand how truly rainbows work. So if you're one of those I'll ask you to look for your favourite triangular prism and to put it somewhere near your monitor, for very shortly you will need it.

There is another subject of great interest to the common thinker with a love for rainbows, but which is much less discussed in the major physics fora--by and large because our conventional physicists have much less to say about it than in the other cases. This particular subject is concerned with how do raindrops can work together in such an effective manner that they manage to display for us basically only one big rainbow, in spite of the fact that each and every one of those complotting raindrops can also display their own individual mini rainbow- copies. Now, when the common thinker asks the conventional physicist to explain how raindrops manage to achieve such a feat the only answer he gets is that it has been empirically established that the totality of raindrops in a curtain of showers, say, are undoubtedly behaving in the light of the sun very much like a single droplet of rain, and that that's why we see only one big rainbow, instead of a myriad of small ones. Fair enough, I'd say to that, but we can do a lot (and I mean a looot) more than that in order to convince the rightfully sceptical common thinker that he is  really not just taken for a quick ride around the block.

OK. We'll begin by looking at the pictures below through a prism. (I wager that I do not need to explain why through a prism instead of a spherical lens, for example. Or indeed that by using a triangular prism we can be reasonably confident that basically all other known optical tools are behaving and responding in a like manner.) That being said I will next reiterate a handful of pointers about how you ought to conduct the observations below in order to extract the maximum amount of benefit from them.

First make sure that you position yourself comfortably in front of your computer monitor at a distance of about 50 cm from it. Then, with your favourite hand (which I'll assume to be the right one) hold your prism oriented with its apex to the left and slowly stretch your arm forward toward the monitor until the front side of the prism is almost touching the screen. Keep in mind that there is no need to alter your position (by trying to follow the prism with your eyes towards the screen, for example) for you should be able to easily look through it from where your original position.

Next, look carefully through your prism at the first picture below and you should be able to see that from that very close distance to the screen your prism will display the regular spectral colours, albeit as very narrow chromatic bands. the spectral colours will be shown to be split in two halves: one half consisting of the blue-violet part (which should be visible on the left side of each white rectangle, toward the apex of the prism) and with the other half being formed by the yellow-red combination at the opposite side of each rectangle, toward the base of the prism. Some of you may also distinguish a hint of a green band of colour, if your prism is a little more distant from the screen (than my own particular distance, for instance). It is desirable that you conduct your observations slowly and with care, so please don't rush. Otherwise you run the risk of hindering the full potential of the experience.

Next, when you are satisfied with your observation from that particular distance start drawing very slowly the prism toward yourself, continuing to observe what happens to the original chromatic display with every little step you take. Once again I'll ask you to not rush at any point, for as you should notice things change quite quickly in the spectral display that is unfolding right before your very eyes. As you'll be drawing the prism closer and closer to your observing eye you will see radical changes taking place in the colours displayed, and I truly believe that if you'll pay the right attention to those changes you should certainly begin to envisage new insights, new possibilities,  new potential scenarios.

Lastly, for the time being, please continue your observations in the same manner and with each picture shown below. What we are aiming for, in effect, is to look at each particular picture from as many relative distances as possible, for it is in this manner that you should begin to see the real truth about rainbows and indeed the entire optical phenomena, in general. I can tell you that in my own case I have conducted these observations--and many others on top--starting from a virtual zero distance between my prism and the screen to distances in excess of 7 metres. And with this being said I will now bid you goodbye and hope to see you again very soon. Take care.

New symmetry and beauty in the Truth of colour

It's been more than eight months since I have written anything in this blog. Eight months of an incredible amalgam of different and contrasting events, which until today have done a good job to keep me away from communicating with anyone, beside the collaborator I had mentioned in the last post I had written all those months ago.  That is not to say that I have been in any way negatively affected, or idle, in the course of this time. Quite the contrary. In fact the last eight months of my life have been busy, rich and rewarding. But now, with a young new year walking amongst us, the time has come to return to these pages recharged and renewed for the beginning of yet another chapter in my vaudevillian struggle with the conventional contemporary performers. Finally, in this impromptu introduction, let me thank God, for my life continues to be an absolute blast (and I hope yours is too, by the way).

I want to begin by firstly confessing that in the relatively recent past I have made two rather puerile mistakes, for which I have naturally had to bear some cross for a while. The first, and older of those two, consisted in my stubborn belief that the primary colours of light had to be formed by the Red, Yellow and Blue combination. Fortunately, in one of my recent interactions with my new friend and collaborator from the good U. S. of A. we came to discuss some of the more salient aspects of the conventional understanding on colour theory and I found myself forced to earnestly reassess my hitherto stance on light's primary combination of colours. 

Now, since we have already gotten to the point that just a little earlier today I was feeling rather reluctant to spend any time on,  with the apparent benefit of some 'wings' put on me by a couple of icy-cold Red Bulls I seem to have somewhat changed my feelings a fraction. Thus I decided just a brief moment ago that, reluctantly or not, I nonetheless had to mention at least a couple of the things that have been most relevant in the change of my former position on the issue at stake.

So, the first thing that convinced me that there was indeed a genuine need on my part to reconsider my view on the primary colours of light was Michael's first hand experience he'd acquired many years ago, when as a young, enthusiastic and gifted conventional student he was employed by Motorola, where his job was to align chroma panels for their range of colour TVs. That first job as a young freshman combined with his continuing academic evolution, eventually enabled him to develop an extensive experience in the intricacies of mixing the conventional primary colours (RGB) to produce the entire gamut of the spectral colours, which in the end had undoubtedly provided him with a formidable stronghold on the entire subject.

Now, being well aware of my inherent propensity for stubbornness has certainly proven to also be the source of a significant number of additional traits, side-effects and concerns in my private universe over the years. But there has just as certainly existed a genuine upshot to all those things that helped me all along in my physical and mental struggle as a human: That is that I was never in any real danger of becoming a chronic fool-buffoon.

So, following immediately the unfolding of the events mentioned above I wrote Michael a short email asking him to allow me a day or two before I'll be able to definitely decide whether I could accept, or not, that the primary colours of light ought to be RGB rather than RYB. Then I retired in my favourite corner, to think.

In the end though it hardly took me an hour, if that, to arrive at a definite and final conclusion in the matter. In fact, to be absolutely fair to what really happened in that hour of private deliberation, the truth is that most of that time I had spent in lamenting and cursing the indulgence with which I had treated an old and most familiar prismatic observation in the past. So it had been nobody's fault but mine all along (as yet another old and most familiar track, this time, is busting the inner drums of my ears).

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I wrote the above when 2018 was just a handful of days old, but then I did nothing about it since. That was, by and large, due to my foremostly concentrating  on the subject of rainbow formation, which for a few weeks now I was going to discuss on these pages any newly emerging day, I believed. So for a couple of months what I had written then remained a draft saved for some uncertain time in the future. This morning, however, I suddenly  decided that today was a good time to finish it, as quickly as possible,  and then to, even quicker, post it at once. I made that sudden decision for reasons I don't wish to disclose. Anyway, but then a most relevant question remained: How could I complete all that beautiful train of thought in just the very short time I had left until that very important meeting I  agreed to only a few hours ago?

In the end I am pleased to say that I have managed to achieve all of the above.  And I did it this way.

First I extracted the best part of an email I had sent Michael when I came to my foregoing realisation (that happened quite a while ago now, on July 31, 2017). See below.

Dear Michael,

Please rejoice with me, for what I've just seen less than five minutes ago I'm sure that will please your mind and soul as much as it pleased mine!

You know, ever since you persuaded me that it is RGB the trio of the primary colours and CMY the secondary ones I have not stopped learning and thinking about them. Then, last night it so happened that I found myself in front of the computer experimenting with different combinations those colours and trying--rather chaotically, I must say--to see what unknown but possible implications they might have in the big picture we're trying to unravel. Anyway, to cut a long story short, after hours of fruitless toil I sent you the last email I did and went away to some appointments I had. Finally, just before 6 pm I arrived back home and in a matter of minutes I managed to find not what I was looking for (for after all I had no idea about what I was looking for) but something that was insanely unexpected and equally satisfying!

OK, thank you for bearing with my rumbling. Now straight to the point. 

So we knew that R and B shift in opposite directions and G doesn't shift at all in those so-called subjective prismatic observations, when they are displayed on a black background. We also knew--from you, my dear friend--that neither does M shift when projected on a white background. These thoughts led to my first realisation--which was that R and B behave exactly the same when they are observed against a white background too. Now to me that was a new fact, although to you I have a feeling that it is not--even though we've never specifically talked about that, have we? Finally, these things led me to drawing a pattern that revealed in an instant that just like in the case where R and B deflect in opposite directions while G stays put, when it comes to the CMY combination observed against a white background C and Y also deflect in opposite directions while M stays put. More exactly, Y deflects toward the apex of the prism and C toward the base. This is a beautiful and reassuring state of affairs, for Y emulates what its primary partner B does and C does likewise relative to its counterpart R. And that's not all. From the simple pattern I'd drawn it becomes readily apparent that not only do Y and C mimic their respective counterparts qualitatively but quantitatively as well. This makes it all even more beautiful, doesn't it? And, of course, it is not a trivial fact either that R+C=W, G+M=W and B+Y=W.

Next I will drop below copies of the two pictures (in the email called patterns) I had attached to my email. Observe carefully both of them directly with the naked eye through a triangular prism from a distance of approx. 0.5 m-1 m. Look first at both pictures with your prism oriented with its apex pointing to your left, then change its orientation with the apex pointing to your right, next.




Next there is another picture, which in effect contains both the above pictures in relevant combination. Observe this picture in the same manner as before. This picture depicts the entire set of what we have discovered in addition--and in contrast, at the same time--to what the conventional understanding stipulates. That particular set of differences we have rightfully and respectfully called The Poradin-Heffron Law.

Finally you will find below  picture meant to be observed in the same manner as the others contained in this post. This final picture will reveal to the careful observer the rich array of colour interconnections in those so-called prismatic subjective observations. Look at this picture, through your prism, from a few different distances--from as close as possible to the as far as possible--for if a picture does indeed tell 1000 words, this one is telling 1000 times that. Enjoy.

And that is all, for the time being. My next post will be concerned with the very thorny issue of the rainbow phenomena. Take care, be wise and be happy.

Day 11

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