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When light is refracted through little drops of water the rainbow is formed behind the water molecules.

When light is refracted through a glass prism the rainbow is formed inside the prism.

Then why when the light is refracted through a bubble the rainbow is formed on the surface of the bubble?

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The colors in the bubble are not caused by refraction, but by interference on thin layers. You see the same colors on a thin oil film. You can see the colors changing when the bubble slowly evaporates from red and yellow to blue and violet. And before it dies the colors vanish since the layer is too thin.

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    $\begingroup$ Right. Check out en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin-film_interference $\endgroup$
    – Nadav Har'El
    Commented Jul 19, 2023 at 9:48
  • $\begingroup$ How can the colors, their order, and their thicknesses be predicted? Sounds the three characteristics aren't consistent with the same characterstics in a rainbow. $\endgroup$
    – Snack Exchange
    Commented Jul 19, 2023 at 10:40
  • $\begingroup$ If you don't know what interference is, this would be a very long physics lesson or several. The link Nadav Har'El gave you explains the colors. So either you have to learn interference, or you wait till it comes up in your learning. $\endgroup$
    – trula
    Commented Jul 19, 2023 at 13:06

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