Suppose an explosion at a glass factory caused it to "rain" tiny spheres made of glass. Would the resulting rainbow be different from the normal one? If so, how might it be different and why?

Rainbows are formed when sunlight gets refracted, or bent, and reflected inside tiny water droplets in the air. The sunlight is first refracted as it enters the water droplet, then it reflects off the inside surface of the droplet, and finally, it is refracted again as it leaves the droplet. Due to these refractions and reflection, different colors (wavelengths) of light are separated, with shorter wavelengths (blue and violet) being refracted more than longer wavelengths (red and orange). As a result, we see a circle of concentric colored bands known as a rainbow.

The refractive index of a material determines how much light is bent or refracted when it enters the material. The higher the refractive index, the more the light is bent. In the case of a water droplet, the refractive index is approximately 1.33. Glass, on the other hand, has a higher refractive index, which typically ranges from 1.5 to 1.9 depending on the type of glass.

When light enters the tiny glass spheres produced after the explosion, it will refract and disperse just like in a water droplet. However, because the refractive index of glass is higher than that of water, this would lead to a different extent of bending and dispersion of colors. Shorter wavelengths will be bent even more than they would in a water droplet, which will affect the final appearance of the rainbow.

Considering the difference in refractive indices, the rainbow formed by the glass spheres would indeed be different from a normal rainbow created by water droplets. As glass has a higher refractive index than water, the colors in the rainbow formed by the glass spheres will be more separated and spread out. The extent of the separation between the different colors in the rainbow would be greater in the rainbow created by glass spheres compared to a normal rainbow. In conclusion, the rainbow resulting from the tiny glass spheres after the explosion at the glass factory would be different from a normal rainbow. The key differences would be due to the higher refractive index of glass compared to water, which results in more extensive dispersion and separation of colors.