Richard - Red, Of - Orange, York - Yellow, Gave - Green, Battle - Blue, In - Indigo, Vain - violet.
Rainbows are one of nature’s most magical creations and we’re so glad we’re seeing them all the time during quarantine! We love looking at all the different versions in people’s windows and the sense of community and gratitude they inspire.
As you may know, rainbows occur when water droplets refract and reflect light in the air. They are usually arc shaped but can be viewed as completely circular, doubled or on rare occasions, as a ‘Moonbow’ at night! Rainbows span a continuous spectrum of light, which means if you take a black and white picture of one, you wouldn’t see any difference in bands of colour. As humans limited by our light spectrum vision, we perceive them as the classic seven colours: red, yellow, orange, green, blue, indigo and violet.
As we at Seven Scents know, the number seven pops up again and again in nature, music, art and science, making it seem like a very mystical figure. However, when the rainbow spectrum was first investigated by Isaac Newton, he divided it into *five* colours, only later adding orange and indigo to match an ancient Greek belief on the connection of colours, musical notes, planets and days of the week!
Not only that, but Isaac Asimov, of I, Robot fame, stated "It is customary to list indigo as a colour lying between blue and violet, but it has never seemed to me that indigo is worth the dignity of being considered a separate colour. To my eyes it seems merely deep blue." Poor indigo, it’s one of our favourites!
Which rainbow colour is your favourite?
Let us know in the comments.