The angle of the rainbow The figure on the right shows René Descartes' sketch of how a rainbow is formed (Discours de la méthode, 1637). A light ray from the Sun (AB) enters a raindrop at B and undergoes two refractions (at B and D) and a total internal reflection at C. The purpose of this problem is to show that the angle DEM at which an observer sees the rainbow is approximately 42°. Assume the raindrop is spherical and show that the angle between the lines AB and DE, which is equal to the angle DEM, is given by θ = 4sin(1sinâ¡Î¸/n)20, where θ is the angle of incidence and n = 1.33 is the index of refraction of the raindrop. More outgoing rays concentrate near the maximum of the function. This maximum angle max is the angle at which the rainbow appears.