Growing up, I was taught that rainbows have 6 colors. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. It makes sense as it goes from primary color (red) to secondary color (orange) back to primary (yellow) back to secondary (green), to primary (blue) and finally ending on secondary (purple). Indigo is a blend of blue and purple, but purple is a blend of red and blue…..
In: Physics
When we describe a rainbow using named colors that’s a simplification. A real rainbow isn’t a strip of red and then a strip of orange and the a strip of yellow. It’s a continuous spectrum of light that blends gradually from one color to the next.
A rainbow you draw using crayons is like a set of steps, each one is unique and you can count them.
A real rainbow is more like a ramp. There’s no individual steps, you can’t count anything because it just gradually changes height from the bottom to the top.
BTW, the “primary” and “secondary” colors you listed are only one system of colors, specifically used for pigments. For light emitting devices like cell phone screens the primary colors are red, blue, and green. To make yellow you combine red and green light.
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