How dare you question National Geographic (genuflect) ya scurvy cur. 
From Wikipedia
Quote:
Refraction is also responsible for rainbows and for the splitting of white light into a rainbow-spectrum as it passes through a glass prism. Glass has a higher refractive index than air and the different frequencies of light travel at different speeds (dispersion), causing them to be refracted at different angles, so that you can see them. The different frequencies correspond to different colours observed.
While refraction allows for beautiful phenomena such as rainbows it may also produce peculiar optical phenomena, such as mirages and Fata Morgana. These are caused by the change of the refractive index of air with temperature.
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The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.
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09-06-2006, 07:55 PM
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