Our perception of a rainbow is coloured (pun intended) by our expectation that there are seven colours. In reality, there aren't seven distinct bands, but multiple colours blending and shading into one another. Around 1665, Isaac Newton performed experiments with a prism producing a spectrum in which he identified seven colours Prior to that, the spectrum had been thought to have five colours. For example, in his book Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours, Robert Boyle described the spectrum he produced with a prism as "denoting the five consecutions of colours Red, Yellow, Green, Blew, and Purple". This book was published in 1664, just before Newton started his experiments. However, the number seven had long been considered mystical, denoting perfection and completeness. This sort of mysticism fascinated Newton as much as science, so he thought there must be seven colours in the rainbow. He added orange and split purple into indigo and violet.
展开▼
