When you look at the colors of the rainbow, it is easy to see red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, but books always include the color indigo too. Why is indigo listed as part of the spectrum?
Excellent! While rainbows have always shown their colors, Sir Isaac Newton was the first that described the spectrum as seven colors. He was convinced that seven was a special number in science. There were seven notes in the scale, seven days in a week, seven known planets at the time, etc. He also saw other strong connections between the musical scale and the visible spectrum, such as the fact that they both were continuous, with one note or color gradually blending into the next.
Since Newton did much of the primary work in the science of color, his use of seven colors became standard. Indigo is not as well known as the others because it is a range of wave lengths that the human eye does not respond well to, and many people can't distinguish it from blue or violet.
indigo in the color spectrum
the color indigo and how to train the eye to recognize it within the color spectrum easier.
indigo
So you think indigo should be included in the visible spectrum? I don't have any idea about it one way or the other, but it seems to be missing from current textbooks. ??? Thanks for your thoughts!
color
mabye its 2 colors mixed to form a new color like red and yellow make orange??
relpy
its included in part of the rainbow bc they want it to be bt nobody qives a .....
Rainbow
Is it because you can't really see it, is it too far on the other end of the light spectrum? But it is there?
I don't know, can't wait to find out!
L. albers
Indigo
Dear Mr.Krampf
Isaac Newton added Indigo as a color in between purple and blue on the spectrum, but most people can't distinguish it so scientists now don't include it.
FROM,
Isaac
where did "indi" go? :-)
Good question! I've been wondering about this a while. I grew up with the "i" in "biv", but my students' textbooks did not. :-)
Here's our stab in the dark, (and we're discussing light!) Isaac Newton, when he discovered the spectrum of light via prisms, assumed there must be an indigo because the art/paint experts of his day, had an indigo on their color wheels. What we read concluded that there really isn't an indigo but that there IS a violet and then a purple. Yah, what they said.
By the way, we looked for the winning joke about roadrunners on Facebook and here, but did not find it. Who's joke won?
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