Thread: An important poll!

I have found the answer. There is no magenta in a rainbow.

The long wavelength (red) and the short wavelength (blue) do not overlap in the rainbow. If they did, we would see magenta in a rainbow.

The count should be six imo. Red, yellow, and blue are the simplest colors and the other colors are mixtures of them. Orange = red and yellow. Green = yellow and blue. And violet = red and blue. With red, yellow, and blue you can pretty much make most of the colors there are, depending on how you mix them.

Then why you told about six colors? There should be three colors there, isn't it.

As it's been said already, there are SEVEN colors in a Russian rainbow.

Красный, Оранжевый, Желтый, Зелёный, Голубой, Синий, Фиолетовый

And as it appears, in an English one there are only six

In German there are also 7:

Rot, Orange, Gelb, Gr

Originally Posted by E-learner

I have a question. Sorry if, in fact, it belongs to Silly Questions Topic.

Does a rainbow contain all possible colours?

I mean, if you mix, for example, red and violet you are not likely to get anything that belongs to a rainbow. Or are you?

That's what I was going to say. There are infinite colors in the rainbow. Our senses just aren't fine tuned enough to see them all.

6 or 8

Originally Posted by E-learner

Does a rainbow contain all possible colours?

Yes, of course. This is actually pure 'white' light from the sun (a full spectrum, 'all colors in one') whose parts are deflected in water droplets in the atmospehre at different angles depending on their wavelength (= different colors).

There aren't any "gaps" in it, one could always take two neighbouring colors and then, if one 'looks closer' there will always be a color 'between' them.

EDIT
E-learner, I kind of misunderstood you question, so disregard this. In the rainbow you can only see all the pure colors, not the 'mixed' ones. What I tried to say is the you can see all possible components of all possible colors-

Originally Posted by Ty

Originally Posted by E-learner

I have a question. Sorry if, in fact, it belongs to Silly Questions Topic.

Does a rainbow contain all possible colours?

I mean, if you mix, for example, red and violet you are not likely to get anything that belongs to a rainbow. Or are you?

That's what I was going to say. There are infinite colors in the rainbow. Our senses just aren't fine tuned enough to see them all.

True, a trained eye can distinguish over 60 thousands of color shades, but children are taught to distinguish some finite number of them. I wanted to hear a 'common' view on the matter. A language we speak provides the words to name them (blue, red, green, etc) but other colors doesn't have names so we invent 'dark blue', 'light green', etc. In Russia we are told that there are 7 colors in a rainbow. I know that in other cultures this number varies.

The Chinese seem to have traditionally only 5 colors in the rainbow, but I couldn't find their names. The Chinese Wiki lists 7 colors, though, which are the same as the Russian ones (incl. 'light blue' and 'blue').

We need Chinese people here..

Спорят два еврея:
— Чёрный — это цвет.
— Нет, чёрный это не цвет.
— Да говорю тебе, чёрный — это цвет.
— Да никогда в жизни!
— Точно говорю, чёрный — это цвет.
— Ничего подобного.
— Ладно, пойдём спросим у раввина, что Тора об этом говорит.
Пошли к раввину. Тот посмотрел в Торе и говорит:
— Да, в Торе сказано, что чёрный — это цвет.
— ВОТ! Что я тебе говорил? Чёрный — это цвет!
— Ладно, чёрный это цвет. Но не белый.
— Что? Белый не цвет? Белый — это цвет!!!
— Нет, белый это не цвет.
— Как так, белый не цвет? С каких это пор?
— Вот так, не цвет и все.
— Ладно, пойдём спросим у раввина, что Тора об этом говорит.
Опять пошли к раввину. Тот опять посмотрел в Торе:
— Тора говорит, что белый — это цвет.
Первый еврей, радостно:
— Ну? Что я тебе говорил? Я тебе продал ЦВЕТНОЙ телевизор!!

Hello, guys! What are you talking about? There are no discrete colors at rainbow that illustrates the spectrum of "white light" so human's eye sees radiation of wave length from ~450 to ~650 nanometers and colors are named only for comfort.

Originally Posted by SearMe

Hello, guys! What are you talking about? There are no discrete colors at rainbow that illustrates the spectrum of "white light" so human's eye sees radiation of wave length from ~450 to ~650 nanometers and colors are named only for comfort.

There are no nanometres either. Not only measures of length, as well as width and height, are named only for our comfort and convenience, but they themselves are just a product of imagination, unlike light, which has something solid behind it, so what are you talking about?

I counted 8. Am I retarded?

well... I don't know how to break this to you... let's just say no for now, ok? :P