Sandra Morris, age 11, of Atlanta, Ga., for her question;

Why is the rainbow always the same colors?

The rainbow is a complicated trick with mirrors, light and angles. The mirrors are a million raindrops falling from a cloud. The light is the sunshine striking from the opposite side of the sky. The sunlight seems to have no color at all. But actually it is a blend of rainbow colors, each traveling in its own wave length of larger or smaller waves.

The mirror raindrops are small enough to separate this skein of color. They trap and bend each color at a different angle, depending on the wave length. The colors of light are always the same ‑ red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. And the little mirrors always bend each at a certain angle. This separates them always in the same order,

The color band of a single rainbow begins with the red on the outside of. the glimmering arch and shades through the spectrum to violet on the inside. The order is reversed in a second bow. Though the seven color are usually there, they shade from one to another through countless in‑between tints.