The Physics of a Fighter Jet Rainbow

This plane is easily capable of supersonic speeds, and I wouldn’t be surprised if its speed wasn’t exceeding (or at least approaching) Mach 1. The fact that we’re moving somewhere around the speed of sound is important, and we’ll need to remember it for later.

But the star of the top picture is clearly the rainbow trail behind it. Most of you have seen such a rainbow trail before, similar to when you have the Sun shining on a film of soap or oil in a puddle on the street.