You thought that the shape of a rainbow is a bow, but you are wrong

[Roscoe]

You thought that a rainbow was the shape of a bow but all rainbows are a full circle but you never get to see the whole thing. 

The light being reflected out of the water droplets goes in every direction which is why the rainbow is a full circle. To see a full rainbow you need to have water droplets far enough below the sunline so that they can be reflecting light back up from there. Sadly the earth is normally in the way we only have water droplets above us. It’s only when you are in a plane that you have water droplets in every different direction and you see the entire circular rainbow. And that’s why you’ll never find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, because there isn’t one. Rainbows aren’t bows - they’re round.

I knew that you would find that interesting

[Oh_hunnihunni]

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10...&source=48

Of course it is a circle. That's why the pot of gold is so hard to find.

[Kenj]

Why don't they call it a rainfullcircle then?

Ken

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Why don't they call it a rainfullcircle then?

Ken

Because most of it is underground. Only the bow is visible.

Obvious, innit?

[Kenj]

OK........ So, where have they hidden the arrows then?

Ken

[Roscoe]

Not quite. You can't see the other half because it is hidden by the earth. The other half is below the horizon, but you can see the full circle if you are up in a plane.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Wot I just said then...

[king1]

Now that is pretty cool, so rainbows are usually always full circle, up in the cloud layer, but part of it is always blocked by the horizon...

found this video of one from skydivers - starts at about 35 seconds (turn the volume down)

[Roscoe]

Thank you for that King1. That illustrates it perfectly.