Guinness World Records has officially recognized a nearly nine-hour rainbow observed from Chinese Culture University in Taipei last year as the world’s longest-lasting rainbow.
Official Guinness World Records adjudicator John Garland presented a certificate to the university yesterday for meticulously documenting the rainbow.
According to the university’s data, the rainbow, which appeared on Nov. 30, lasted from 6:57am to 3:55pm — just shy of nine hours.
Photo provided by the Chinese Culture University
It beat the 1994 record of a six-hour rainbow held by Wetherby, England, by nearly three hours.
Chou Kun-hsuan (周昆炫), a professor from the university’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, whose team documented the event, said a total of 3,520 photographs with time codes were collected to complete a “rainbow clock,” which recorded every 9.2 seconds of the rainbow’s movements.
Rainbows last so long near the university because of moderate seasonal winds and hilly terrain, which help accumulate just the right amount of moisture near Yangmingshan (陽明山), Chou said.
Tsai Ching-yen (蔡清彥), chairman of the Meteorological Application and Development Foundation, credited faculty, staff and students with getting the rainbow recognized, saying that they took advantage of what the environment gave them and created value out of a natural phenomenon.
The rainbow now holds the title of “longest-lasting rainbow” and academics believe it will be a difficult record to beat.
Weather conditions, including everything from radiation to wind and moisture, has to be incredibly stable for a rainbow to last such a long time, and given that there is on average only 11 hours between sunrise and sunset, nine hours is probably the maximum amount of time a rainbow in Taiwan or anywhere else could last, Chou said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS