Marilyn Misses the Glory

Marilyn is Wrong Copyright © 1998 Herb Weiner. All rights reserved.

Ask Marilyn ® by Marilyn vos Savant is a column in Parade Magazine, published by PARADE, 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA. According to Parade, Marilyn vos Savant is listed in the "Guinness Book of World Records Hall of Fame" for "Highest IQ."

In her Parade Magazine column of August 2, 1998, Marilyn admitted that she could not find a name for a round (doughnut) shaped rainbow, and proposed the name "angel's eye." She also claimed that "all rainbows are full circles."

Sorry Marilyn

Rich Isaacman <isaacman@integ.com> wrote:

Marilyn could not have searched very hard. Any good optics textbook, plus any number of web sites, would have informed her that the effect is very well known and is called a "glory", which can appear as colored rings around the shadow of an aircraft over a cloud.

References:

Bad Astronomy

Phil Plait <badastro@badastronomy.com> explains on his Bad Astronomer web site that rainbows can be, but usually aren't full circles.
http://www.wiskit.com/marilyn/glory.html last updated February 10, 1999 by herbw@wiskit.com