A large plastic prism is put into orbit somewhere the solar system. The prism reflects it's colorful rainbow into Earth's atmosphere. Thus: The Plastic Planetary Prism.
Maybe the prism will be in orbit around the sun like our planet is, so that the rainbow affects Earth only once per year and at a short time indeed.
Or maybe in orbit around Earth itself? Imagine: It's sundown, the sun is setting, you look to the sky, and oh-what's this? The PPP is coming around the Earth's terminator directing a beautiful rainbow across the sky!
Maybe another one could be placed orbiting the moon, so that at night, you could see the moon light up with dozens of colors!-- EvilPickels, Nov 10 2005 Revelation 8 http://www.bluelett...Rev/Rev008.html#top [reensure, Nov 12 2005] Atmospheric Optics http://www.atoptics.co.uk/all-around cool site [Laimak, Nov 12 2005] A definitive study of water in space. http://exploration....ov/balloon/blob.htm [daseva, Nov 14 2005] I agree: rainbows are way too beautiful to just be seen so rarely. So, if you're into making an "human generated" rainbow, there should be a way for it to be permanent!
Now that I think about it, making it permanent will make it lose some of its charm... just make it show up rarely enough so we don't get used to it, but often enough so putting a PPP out there is worth the cost.-- Pericles, Nov 10 2005 You can actually get this effect with high altitude ice crystals. I have photos somewhere, but I'm not sure I can lay my hands on them quickly.
But unless you're throwing the prism's light onto thin clouds, all you're going to see is a flash of colored light - try looking into a prism directed at the sun (with dark glasses on, for safety's sake).
As for the moon, the bright side is illuminated with bright direct sunlight - I'm not sure you could get nearly enough prismed light onto it to show up this far away.
And the dark side is already lit up by the Earth: this is so dim you can only see it when there is a lunar eclipse. Again, I doubt you will manage anything brighter.-- DrCurry, Nov 10 2005 On the moon would be good though. Well done for staying clear of the "how we do it" part, [Evil].-- wagster, Nov 10 2005 Project the rainbow light onto the moon when it is not illuminated by the sun, i.e. new moon half of the cycle.
You would have to somehow communicate your intentions to everyone on earth first, otherwise people would start tripping out.-- Texticle, Nov 10 2005 are u sure it's a rainbow you're going to see ? are u sure it's not just a.... color ? are u sure it's.... nothing ?-- sweet, Nov 11 2005 Yours for the low low price of a single pot'o'gold.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 11 2005 The PPPs already exist in a natural state and are called raindrops! :D Of course you need many of them, since you'll only catch a little bit of the light spectrum that each emits. Add up the inputs of all those drops and, lo! and behold, a rainbow appears. A single prism won't generate a rainbox for any observer looking up at it, just a single color.-- placid_turmoil, Nov 11 2005 (+) my friend...I share you vision...unfortunately thought, I think this would be unjustifiably expensive to ever see done, or attempted. but then again I've been wrong before-- shinobi, Nov 12 2005 \\would be unjustifiably expensive// [shinobi], I'm surprised at you. I'm sure this could be easily paid for given enough custard and trained squirrels.-- moomintroll, Nov 12 2005 lasso the moon with a long piece of rope and dangle your prism below like a necklace.-- po, Nov 12 2005 "dangle your prism" - such an evocative expression...-- DrCurry, Nov 12 2005 //The PPPs already exist in a natural state and are called raindrops!// - Could we make space-clouds? What happens to water in space? Is it so cold that it freezes, or does it boil due to the lack of pressure?-- wagster, Nov 12 2005 "freezes, or does it boil?" Are surface tension and microgravity interchangeable quantities, because I think it does both.-- reensure, Nov 13 2005 // What happens to water in space? // I would think that if it doesn't freeze very quickly, it disperses, unless we are talking about huge bodies of water which generate enough gravity to retain its particles.-- placid_turmoil, Nov 14 2005 Just convince earth to rid itself of the evil chemical Dihydrogen Monoxide. Then they will hand all the water over to you, and you can build yourself a 'water planet' to run the sunlight through.-- sleeka, Nov 14 2005 //Well done for staying clear of the "how we do it" part//
Never gave it a thought... =D
I didn't think much about where to place the PPP or how it might create a rainbow, I don't know much about atmospheric optics.-- EvilPickels, Nov 14 2005 random, halfbakery