Facts about Rainbows

Who knew these “rainy arches” had such a colorful history?!

Source: 17 wonderfully curious facts about rainbows

. During the Renaissance, it was decided that, no, there were four colors: red, blue, green, and yellow. By the 17th century, western thinkers had agreed upon five colors: red, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

9. In 1637 René Descartes discovered that rainbows were caused by light from the sun being split into different colors by rain. Gold star for Descartes.

10. In 1666, Isaac Newton added indigo and orange to give us the seven-colored Roy G. Biv that we all know and love today. However, in China rainbows are considerer to contain just five colors.

11. The truth is, there is no set number of colors in a rainbow! Each hue blends into the next without a hard boundary, leaving the interpretation up to the person who sees it and the culture that has defined it. (I’m going with 28 colors, so there.)

12. And in fact, a rainbow doesn’t even actually “exist,” … it’s not an object, it’s an optical phenomenon. Which is why no two people see the same rainbow.