Skydiver reveals the real shape of a rainbow that people aren't meant to see in mind-blowing footage
Rainbows are some of the most fascinating natural occurrences you'll come across in daily life and they're almost guaranteed to brighten up your day, yet mind-blowing footage might have you reconsider them next time you see one in the wild.
One of the better aspects of social media is that it can often provide you with perspectives that you would otherwise have no means of achieving, and it can lead to some fascinating discoveries if you're in the right places.
While the long-held myth that there's a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow – or the end of a rainbow in the first place – has long been dispelled, you've likely not considered that the arch-like formation is technically a bit of a lie too.
We're all used to seeing rainbows in the distance that form a semicircle from one side of the ground to the other in the distance, yet seeing the natural phenomenon from a viewpoint in the sky shows that it's not always the case.
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As shared by u/SirenOfSarcasm on Reddit, a video captured by Paul Dewey while skydiving showed a rainbow formed in a complete circle above the English countryside, and it's guaranteed to blow your mind when you see it for yourself.
The near-perfect ring appeared before him while he was in the air, almost inviting you to go through it and achieve a speed-boost effect that you'd get in a video game, and you might be wondering how exactly this happened.
To understand that you must first know how rainbows are formed in the first place, and the Met Office illustrates that it's all dependent on the position of the viewer in relation to light from the Sun and water droplets.
In order for one to form, it explains that the sun needs to be behind the viewer, low in the sky, and at an angle of less than 42 degrees above the horizon. The lower this is, the greater the rainbow's arc will be.
In addition, rain, fog, or any other source of water droplets in the sky must be in front of the viewer's vision, as the effect of light hitting these forms of water will cause it to refract, changing directions and creating the colorful rainbow effect.
The only way that circular rainbows can be formed is by being at a high vantage point – which the skydivers obviously were – as that allows you to view droplets below the horizon level in order to complete the rainbow effect.
While rainbows do 'exist', each individual person views them differently depending on the perspective and position they're looking from, and they're more a visual trick as opposed to an actual 'object' that exists in the world.
That doesn't mean that seeing it in person wasn't a magical event though, as Jan Zackl, the skydiving instructor accompanying Paul Dewey down to Earth, explained:
"We spent pretty much the whole flight down looking at it," he recounted, as per ABC7 New York. "It was very cool and a very special thing to be able to share."