Table 57-1. The first 20 orders of rainbows of water, calculated from geometrical optics. This table shows
the rainbow angleskand bow widths. Also shown are which side of the drop the incident light rays hits
(TDtop, BDbottom) and the rainbow “parity” (ND“normal” parity, with red on the outside and violet on the
inside; RD“reversed” parity, with violet on the outside and red on the inside).^1 The 12th order bow is split
at the horizon, with red rays incident on the bottom of the drops and violet rays on the top (see Fig. 57.5).
Rainbow anglek Width Drop
k red violet Side Parity
1 137.63ı 139.35ı 1.72ı TN
2 129.63ı 126.52ı 3.11ı BR
3 42.47ı 38.11ı 4.37ı BN
4 42.76ı 48.34ı 5.58ı TR
5 127.08ı 133.86ı 6.78ı TN
6 149.10ı 141.13ı 7.96ı BR
7 65.59ı 56.45ı 9.14ı BN
8 17.71ı 28.02ı 10.32ı TR
9 100.86ı 112.35ı 11.49ı TN
10 176.08ı 163.43ı 12.65ı BR
11 93.11ı 79.29ı 13.82ı BN
12 10.19ı 4.79ı 14.99ı (Note 1) (Note 1)
13 72.68ı 88.83ı 16.15ı TR
14 155.51ı 172.82ı 17.32ı TN
15 121.69ı 103.21ı 18.48ı BR
16 38.91ı 19.27ı 19.64ı BN
17 43.84ı 64.65ı 20.80ı TR
18 126.58ı 148.55ı 21.97ı TN
19 150.69ı 127.57ı 23.13ı BR
20 67.98ı 43.69ı 24.29ı BN