This may wreck any credibility that I may have gained at the SDMB, but I’m being serious. Hopefully, my past anti-psuedoscience/anti-ignorance/etc. posts will carry me through this.
First, an anecdote (these are usually worthless, so I’ll keep it brief). Many years ago, my mother and I were driving down the highway and looked ahead in the road to see what seemed to be a rainbow that came down onto the road ahead of us. No, not a thin arc with a pot of gold, but the road and surrounding vicinity was awash in a separated color tints that seemed a lot like a rainbow. I don’t recall what was skyward. We proceeded to drive through it (couple/few seconds I guess) and everything seemed color tinted around us during that time. As far as I can figure, we found the end of a rainbow.
I’m familiar with the physics of rainbows (Cecil’s columns, etc.). But I’m at a loss to explain what I saw. Perhaps it was an elaborate hoax that I wasn’t clued into. It wasn’t a dream because I have another witness. Any ideas? Is there some scientific explanation for being able to pass through a rainbow? (perhaps some configuration that allows the spectrum to be projected onto a fixed point rather than a projected image in front of you?)
I guess what I saw was not a “rainbow”, by definition, but some similar phenomenon.
How many years ago? My guess is it’s simply a false memory. And yes, I think it’s possible that both you and your mother have a false memory of the event.
Sounds interesting, but the description is too vague for me to even start to figure it out. There are a LOT of rainbow-like phenomena caused by things like ice crystals. The problem is that you could no more go through one of those than you could through your average rainbow – the angular distances are fixed, so as you try to get “closer” it seems to retreat.
It MIGHT be a sort of rainbow. Rainbows due to nearby sources (streetlights, house lights, etc.) do strange things. But you wouldn’t see one in broad daylight, of course.
Not really. It was quite some time ago and I don’t recall the details. It was daytime. The color covered all lanes of the highway we were on (Rt 495 north in Massachusetts). Not sure, but I seem to recall red & yellow more than anything else. I’ll see if my mom remembers any more about it. Oh well, this may be my “one that got away” story.
Revtim - - False memory? Perhaps, but that would suggest that my brain is imperfect. And I can’t accept that.
What was the weather like at the time? Was it raining, misty, foggy, snowing, or anything of the sort? It couldn’t have been a rainbow, and I’m at a bit of a loss to say just what it was, but knowing the conditions might help us to figure it out.
