All the other colors are primary colors and secondary colors. Is there a scientific reason that indigo is notable?
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So first of all there is nothing scientific about saying there’s *any* specific number of colors in the rainbow. That’s entirely cultural because the rainbow isn’t this thing with discrete changes its a big continuous smear of color with 100s of different “reds”, “blues”, “greens”, etc.
That said, in English we tend to say the rainbow has 7 colors because Isaac newton really *really* liked the number 7 and thought it had some cosmic significance so he made damn sure the rainbow would be talked about as if it has 7 colors too. He did a lot of research about how light and vision work, so people listened.
Just to drive home how cultural this is. There are languages that don’t have different words for “green” and “blue” like we do in English. And there’s languages that have entirely different words for things we might think of as the “same” color.
No, there’s no scientific significance to indigo, although in the context of optics, it’s really indigo that is the primary color, and what Newton called “blue” is cyan/aqua.
Basically, Newton thought there was an aesthetic or metaphysical significance to a set of seven colors spaced out in the spectrum of photons, just like there are seven notes in the do-re-mi… system for Western music in the spectrum of all possible audio frequencies. If you divide the visible spectrum into seven portions, they line up roughly as ROYG(light blue)(dark blue)(purple). Indigo was the name for the most common dye at the time for achieving the deep blue he saw.
If optics were being invented today, maybe that color would have been called “denim” instead!
No, there’s no scientific significance to indigo, although in the context of optics, it’s really indigo that is the primary color, and what Newton called “blue” is cyan/aqua.
Basically, Newton thought there was an aesthetic or metaphysical significance to a set of seven colors spaced out in the spectrum of photons, just like there are seven notes in the do-re-mi… system for Western music in the spectrum of all possible audio frequencies. If you divide the visible spectrum into seven portions, they line up roughly as ROYG(light blue)(dark blue)(purple). Indigo was the name for the most common dye at the time for achieving the deep blue he saw.
If optics were being invented today, maybe that color would have been called “denim” instead!
No, there’s no scientific significance to indigo, although in the context of optics, it’s really indigo that is the primary color, and what Newton called “blue” is cyan/aqua.
Basically, Newton thought there was an aesthetic or metaphysical significance to a set of seven colors spaced out in the spectrum of photons, just like there are seven notes in the do-re-mi… system for Western music in the spectrum of all possible audio frequencies. If you divide the visible spectrum into seven portions, they line up roughly as ROYG(light blue)(dark blue)(purple). Indigo was the name for the most common dye at the time for achieving the deep blue he saw.
If optics were being invented today, maybe that color would have been called “denim” instead!
So first of all there is nothing scientific about saying there’s *any* specific number of colors in the rainbow. That’s entirely cultural because the rainbow isn’t this thing with discrete changes its a big continuous smear of color with 100s of different “reds”, “blues”, “greens”, etc.
That said, in English we tend to say the rainbow has 7 colors because Isaac newton really *really* liked the number 7 and thought it had some cosmic significance so he made damn sure the rainbow would be talked about as if it has 7 colors too. He did a lot of research about how light and vision work, so people listened.
Just to drive home how cultural this is. There are languages that don’t have different words for “green” and “blue” like we do in English. And there’s languages that have entirely different words for things we might think of as the “same” color.
So first of all there is nothing scientific about saying there’s *any* specific number of colors in the rainbow. That’s entirely cultural because the rainbow isn’t this thing with discrete changes its a big continuous smear of color with 100s of different “reds”, “blues”, “greens”, etc.
That said, in English we tend to say the rainbow has 7 colors because Isaac newton really *really* liked the number 7 and thought it had some cosmic significance so he made damn sure the rainbow would be talked about as if it has 7 colors too. He did a lot of research about how light and vision work, so people listened.
Just to drive home how cultural this is. There are languages that don’t have different words for “green” and “blue” like we do in English. And there’s languages that have entirely different words for things we might think of as the “same” color.
The colors of a rainbow are specific wavelengths of light that appear when white light is split by a prism, that we can both see and measure. Indigo had a large enough wavelength to be considered its own color, at higher frequency than Blue and lower frequency than Violet.
Modern teachings of color science accepts a 6-color spectrum because the majority of people don’t *perceive* indigo as distinct enough color between Blue and Violet, so it’s instead taught to be a Tertiary Color. However, people wrongly assume the wavelengths are split evenly, so secondary colors rest in the middle between two primary colors. That’s not true, but it’s taught that way to simplify concepts for the general population.
The colors of a rainbow are specific wavelengths of light that appear when white light is split by a prism, that we can both see and measure. Indigo had a large enough wavelength to be considered its own color, at higher frequency than Blue and lower frequency than Violet.
Modern teachings of color science accepts a 6-color spectrum because the majority of people don’t *perceive* indigo as distinct enough color between Blue and Violet, so it’s instead taught to be a Tertiary Color. However, people wrongly assume the wavelengths are split evenly, so secondary colors rest in the middle between two primary colors. That’s not true, but it’s taught that way to simplify concepts for the general population.
The colors of a rainbow are specific wavelengths of light that appear when white light is split by a prism, that we can both see and measure. Indigo had a large enough wavelength to be considered its own color, at higher frequency than Blue and lower frequency than Violet.
Modern teachings of color science accepts a 6-color spectrum because the majority of people don’t *perceive* indigo as distinct enough color between Blue and Violet, so it’s instead taught to be a Tertiary Color. However, people wrongly assume the wavelengths are split evenly, so secondary colors rest in the middle between two primary colors. That’s not true, but it’s taught that way to simplify concepts for the general population.
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