I always learned “ROYGBIV” as the colors of the rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo, violet.

What’s up with the last two? Isn’t indigo basically just dark blue? Why is it violet and not purple? Can’t it just be “ROYGBP”?

  • DrQuint@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Actually…

    There is no purple light.

    Kinda.

    Video explaining it in detail: https://youtu.be/CoLQF3cfxv0

    Several colors we can perceive only exist as a specific mixture of wavelengths. And purple (coincidentally for this thread) is one such - white light contains it, sure, but, you can’t isolate it to a specific single band, like you can isolate cyan or yellow. So, no, rainbows can not have purple in them.

    • FiskFisk33@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I disagree. That color he keeps talking about is magenta, there is no magenta light. I see purple in the rainbow, but not magenta.

      • Dr Cog@mander.xyz
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        1 year ago

        You would be half correct. Magenta is impossible “in the real world”. It obviously exists on your computer screen due to its ability to shoot colored light into your eyeballs