Is the sharingan the same as the rinegan?

Answer 1

No, Never. The rinnegan is a visual capacity that is given to only one person every some decades after the one who possesed it before dies. While the Sharingan is of the uchiha clan and every one in that clan can posses it if the get the needed chakra control. The abilities of the one who has the rinnegan are unknown, the only thing known is that he can control all the five stills perfectly. The sharingan when complete can copy jutsus, see the fastest stuf as if it was really slow, it can create a powerful genjutsu, it can see the flow of chakra but not the chakra points. When it becomes into a mongekyo (that can only come it by kiling his or her best friend) sharingan it can do all that and posses the ultimate genjutsu known as tsukoyomi, then some which possesthe tsukoyomi have the amaterasu the supreme physical attack (this jutsu is a fire still ninjutsu that insinerates everything it touches until itis totally destroyed), When the tsukoyomi and the amaterasu are in a mongekyo the susanoo rises ( this is the supreme barrier against all jutsu nothing can go through the susanoo), others who posses the mongekyo can also posses a space jutsu (that consists in that what ever the user sees transfers into another universe). When an uchiha has the mongekyo every time he uses it he or she becomes blind little by little so that they dont become blind they need to get the eyes of his or her brother or sister. Its said that the one who posses the rinnengan will learn all the jutsus on earth, but still for the explanation I just gave, the sharingan is the suprime visual jutsu who even surpasses the rinnengan.