As you all know, Saint Patricks Day is a day of green and getting pinched if you’re not wearing it but it is also a day of celebrating the Leprechaun with all of his tricks and treasures. These treasures also mean the pot of gold and today I’m going to investigate where this pot of gold myth at the end of the rainbow originates.

First, I will look into where this fun myth originated. According to the website I have cited above, it came from an Irish myth that has been passed down throughout the years. The story goes something along the lines of a poor man and his wife meet a Leprechaun. The Leprechaun grants them one wish but the wife requests multiple things as well as the husband and the Leprechaun tells them that they were selfish and he won’t give them the wish anymore. However, since this couple is in desperate need, he would give them a hint as to where his pot of gold is located, which was at the end of a rainbow. After the husband and wife learned of this they searched for it for a long time but they never managed to find it and no one is sure if anyone else has ever found it.

While this story of the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow is interesting, it is actually not scientifically accurate at all because you can never actually reach the end of a rainbow. This is because the whole concept of a rainbow is an optical illusion because in order for the angles to view a rainbow to work out, you always have to be a certain distance from it in order to see it. This means that you could never reach the end of a rainbow while still being able to see it.

While this is certainly demoralizing, you could always pretend that the pot of gold is still possible to obtain. However, if you want to accept the ways of science, it is pretty safe to say that no matter how hard you try, you will never reach the end of the rainbow and all the treasures it has.