Eli5: Why does red + blue = purple

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Red + yellow = orange. Orange sits between red and yellow in the rainbow. It makes sense mixing them provides an “average”

Yellow + blue = green. Green sits between yellow and blue in the rainbow. Same as above.

Purple does not sit between red and blue in the rainbow. Why do they combine to make purple?

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6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s all made up by your brain

your eyes only sense 3 different colors (red, green, blue) any natural light will ‘tingle’ the closest sensors, example: if some yellow light reaches your eye, the red sensor will ‘tingle’ moderately and the green one just a bit; the brain read those signals and goes “hey, that’s yellow”. When you have blue light and red light mixed, your brain will receive those signals and has to interpret a color from them, and so purple is created, although there is no real purple light (as seen in the rainbow)

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