This morning in the car, my daughter asked me how rainbows are made. I was driving, could not draw anything for her and had no access to the Interweb, so I winged an answer. I told her about the need for sunlight and water droplets and the right angles. Then I groped for the way to explain refraction. What I ended up telling her was that sunlight is normally like a sandwich. You know, bread, mustard, fake turkey, lettuce hummus, pickles, etc...whatever you want on it. Then when the sunlight hits the water droplets it is like throwing the sandwich against a wall. The parts of the sandwich fly out in slightly different directions.
She liked the answer, and I think she understands that sunlight is not really a sandwich.
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