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flutherother's avatar

How many colours do you see in a rainbow?

Asked by flutherother (34928points) November 4th, 2010

They say seven, but is that true for you. Some see more and some see less. Not all colours have a name, and perhaps not all colour names have a colour

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14 Answers

Blackberry's avatar

Sometimes 5, sometimes 8.

DominicX's avatar

Indigo was included in the spectrum first by Isaac Newton because he felt the number of colors should match the number of notes in a scale. Many modern scientists do not consider indigo a true color in the rainbow/spectrum.

Most of the time I see 6, but yellow-green, red-orange, and blue-violet do stand out sometimes…

erichw1504's avatar

At least 42.

WhYBiRd's avatar

All of them and none at all.

It is a continous spectrum changing frequencies of light -the colours are contious.
Most of the time I see 6-ish, but are you counting duplicates or counting a hued as an individual class? Im asking as we get a lot of double rainbows were I am.

flutherother's avatar

@WhYBiRd Exclude duplicates. The spectrum is a continuous band of frequencies that doesn’t contain any colours as such just an infinite number of wavelengths. The colours are all in the mind. Some people have more acute colour perception than others but we are all limited by the type and number of our colour receptors

WhYBiRd's avatar

Well Red, Red-Orange, Yellow-Green, Blue, Purple- five.
Cool question by the way.

ucme's avatar

Let me see….R ichard O f Y ork G ave B attle I n V ain. Yeah 7, just like teacher told me :¬)

flutherother's avatar

P ity, I E xpected M ore O riginality

erichw1504's avatar

Rowntrees of York Gave Best in Value

ucme's avatar

@flutherother S imple H onesty I n T ruth

Vortico's avatar

Colors are continuous, so I essentially see an infinite number of them. What’s to decide the difference between bright blue and dark blue, for example?

faye's avatar

I was taught Roy G Biv. Bv just doesn’t work.

basstrom188's avatar

Seven there are no more, first noticed by Sir Isaac Newton
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet

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