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Science — CBSE Class 10 board question

Q1. [1]
The phenomena of light involved in the formation of rainbow are :
  1. (A) Refraction, reflection and dispersion
  2. (B) Refraction, dispersion and internal reflection
  3. (C) Reflection, dispersion and internal reflection
  4. (D) Refraction, dispersion, scattering and total internal reflection
Previously asked in CBSE board exam
2024 31/5/1 Q12
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-15 06:52 · grounding rag
Model Answer

(B) Refraction, dispersion and internal reflection

Water droplets refract and disperse sunlight, then internally reflect it, and refract it again on exit, forming the rainbow.

Source: Chapter 10, Section 10.4 Dispersion of White Light by a Glass Prism

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Explanation

The textbook explicitly states: "They refract and disperse the incident sunlight, then reflect it internally, and finally refract it again when it comes out of the raindrop." The key word is internal reflection (not total internal reflection — option D also wrongly adds scattering). Option (A) says plain "reflection" which is incorrect. The correct phenomena are refraction + dispersion + internal reflection → Option (B).

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