The number of colors in the rainbow in different cultures. How many colors are in the rainbow? What colors are in the rainbow The color spectrum of the rainbow

What is a rainbow?

A rainbow is an amazing and incredibly beautiful meteorological and optical natural phenomenon. It can be observed mainly after the rain, when the sun comes out. This is the reason that we can see this wonderful phenomenon in the sky, as well as distinguish the colors of the rainbow, arranged in order.

Causes

A rainbow appears due to the fact that light coming from the sun or from another source is refracted in water droplets that slowly fall to the ground. With their help, white light "breaks", forming the colors of the rainbow. They are arranged in order due to different degrees of light deflection (for example, red light is deflected by fewer degrees than violet). Moreover, a rainbow can also appear due to moonlight, but it is very difficult for our eyes to distinguish it in low light. When forming a circle, which is formed by the "celestial bridge", the center is always on a straight line passing through the Sun or the Moon. For those who observe this phenomenon from the ground, this "bridge" appears as an arc. But the higher the viewpoint, the fuller the rainbow is seen. If you observe it from a mountain or from the air, it can appear before your eyes in the form of a whole circle.

The order of the colors of the rainbow

Many people know a phrase that allows you to remember the order in which the colors of the rainbow are located. For those who don’t know or don’t remember, let’s recall how this line sounds: “Every Hunter Wants to Know Where the Pheasant Sits” (by the way, now there are many analogues of this famous monostikha, more modern, and sometimes very funny). The colors of the rainbow, in order, are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

These colors do not change their location, imprinting in memory the eternal view of such an incredibly beautiful phenomenon. The rainbow we often see is the primary one. During its formation, white light undergoes only one internal reflection. In this case, the red light is outside, as we are used to seeing. However, a secondary rainbow can also form. This is a rather rare phenomenon in which white light is reflected twice in the droplets. In this case, the colors of the rainbow are already in order in the opposite direction (from purple to red). In this case, the part of the sky that is between these two arcs becomes darker. In places with very clean air, you can even observe a "triple" rainbow.

Fancy rainbows

In addition to the familiar arc-shaped rainbow, you can observe its other forms. For example, one can observe lunar rainbows (but it is difficult for the human eye to catch them, for this the glow from the moon must be very bright), foggy, annular (these phenomena have already been mentioned above) and even inverted. In addition, the rainbow can be observed in winter. At this time of the year, it sometimes occurs due to severe frosts. But some of these phenomena have nothing to do with "heavenly bridges". Very often, halo phenomena are mistaken for a rainbow (this is the name of a luminous ring that forms around a certain object).

Your baby is growing, actively exploring the world and surprises with new achievements every day. You have read and heard a lot about early childhood development and pay close attention to this topic. All people are born with approximately the same abilities, says the Japanese scientist Shinichi Suzuki, it is upbringing that makes them different.

Any child is able to grow up smart and capable if he is given what is required for development and, most importantly, at a certain time. Dance, violin and English lessons in early childhood are not at all in order to grow a brilliant violinist, linguist or dancer from a child, but in order to give impetus to the development of his boundless potentialities. The baby's brain is actually a blank sheet of paper, and what will be initially inscribed on this sheet depends on how widely the child's potential will be revealed. Below we will talk about how to start small - remember the colors of the rainbow with your child in order.

When to start training?

To determine the answer to this question, we turn to physiology. The human brain has about one and a half billion cells, but in babies more than half of them are not used. Most of the connections between brain cells are built during the first three years of a child's life. Thinking, creativity, feelings, develop already after three years, but the basis for this must be created from birth.

Briefly summarizing - if the foundation of future abilities is not laid in time, then there will be nothing to develop. Thus, starting from the age of three, it is advisable to teach the child simple and useful basic knowledge about the world around him.

So how can you help your child remember the colors of the rainbow?

To move on to memorizing the rainbow spectrum, colors, as such, must already be mastered by the child. The colors of the rainbow in the spectrum have the following order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. One of the most common ways to memorize a number of words or numbers is to link them in meaning into a text, sing or rhyme. There are a lot of poems and counting rhymes on the topic of the rainbow spectrum. About the hunter who wants to know, and about the ringer who knocked down the lantern - these are all well-known ways of remembering the location of the colors of the rainbow. You can choose with your child what you like and start learning. We offer our version of the rhymed sequence:

What a wonder, look
Rainbow is up there!
The red color reminds
Tie on the chest.
The color is orange like the leaves
In the park behind the pond
Yellow is like the sun
And burns with fire
Green in the center of the rainbow
In the very core,
Like an innocent child
In my mother's arms.
The blue sky will change
Blue clouds rolling,
The night will come putting on
Purple outfit.

The practice of memorizing colors on the principle of photographing

Take felt-tip pens (or pencils) and collect a rainbow spectrum from them. Repeat with your child a verse or any other rainbow color rhyme that you like the most, pointing to each of the colors in the sequence. Looking at the felt-tip pens, the child visually remembers the sequence, supported by an associative audio sequence.

Invite the child to memorize the order of the felt-tip pens laid out in front of him. When the child is ready, have them close their eyes while you remove one of the flowers. The child is tasked with remembering what color is missing. At the same time, he begins to use his memory, playing the lesson just repeated with you and determines (or not) the missing color.

To consolidate the results, you can complicate the task: remove one of the colors and mix the felt-tip pens. We propose to collect a rainbow on the table and determine which color is missing. But do not demand everything from the child at once. Do not forget that the main thing is that the learning process brings pleasure to both of you.

The practice of memorization on the principle of cycles of repetitions

Children absorb information very quickly, but they forget just as quickly. You can extend the validity of the memory by periodically repeating information, moreover, with increasing intervals of time. More repetition cycles, better memory retention. Do you remember the song from your childhood “Okay, okay. Where were you? By Grandma!". It is the same with the rainbow - return to this topic again and again with the child in various playful forms. Take, for example, watercolor or finger paints, remember the sequence together and draw a rainbow on a piece of paper. Place the drawing in a frame on the wall and this visual image will automatically work as a repetition of the previously learned "lesson" about the rainbow.

At the physical level, it works like this: after cycles of repetition and application in practice, the brain determines the information as important and moves it from cell c to long-term storage cell.

Yawn, chew, dance and remember

Yes Yes. Yawning activates the supply of oxygen to brain cells. Chewing briefly increases the ability to perceive. This effect is also due to the fact that when chewing, insulin is produced, which enhances the absorption of glucose, and hence the nutrition of the brain. Dancing, or any other physical activity, increases metabolism in cells, including the brain. So feel free to take active breaks in learning and memorizing anything, and after active games, repeat the memorized material again.

Do not forget the most important thing - positive emotions and a positive attitude! In stress, under duress, the memory of a small child is blocked - this is a protective reaction of the child's psyche from external threats. Choose the right time for classes, make sure that the child is comfortable and in a good mood. The children's brain is inquisitive - this is the main rule from which one must build on when starting to teach a child. Be patient, be creative, and share the joy of learning together. You will undoubtedly be satisfied with the results of this approach.

Article author: Lapinskaya Lyudmila

Ha, funny question! Even a child knows "where the pheasant sits", that is, that the rainbow has seven colors. Well, what if you don’t operate with the stamp laid down from school, but try to look at the rainbow with a critical eye yourself? The answer will not be so obvious. It all depends on many factors - on the weather, on the characteristics of the place of observation, on the characteristics of the observer's vision.

Aristotle, in particular, singled out only three colors in the rainbow: red, green and purple. All other colors, he believed, are a mixture of these three. In Kievan Rus, you would be authoritatively assured that the rainbow has four colors. The Kievan chronicler wrote in 1073: "In the rainbow are scarlet, and blue, and green, and crimson."

But the natives of Australia have six colors in the rainbow, but at the same time, some African tribes are still sure that the rainbow has only two colors - dark and light.

Who saw exactly seven colors in the rainbow? It was Isaac Newton. Unlike his predecessors, Newton not only observed the decomposition of white light into a spectrum, but also conducted a lot of interesting experiments with prisms and lenses.

For the first time, the phenomenon of a rainbow as a refraction of the sun's rays in raindrops was explained in 1267 by Roger Bacon. But only Newton analyzed the light, and refracting a beam of light through a prism, he initially counted 5 colors: blue, green, yellow, red and violet (purple for him).

In the future, while conducting research, the scientist looked closely and noticed the sixth. But Newton was such a believer that he did not like this number, and he considered it a demonic obsession. And then the scientist "looked out" another color. The seventh color Newton fancied indigo. He liked the number seven very much. It was considered ancient and mystical, there are seven days of the week, and seven deadly sins. This is how Newton became the founder of the principle of the seven-color rainbow.

The colors in the rainbow are arranged in the order in which they correspond to the spectrum of visible light. In Russian, there are such phrases that help to remember their sequence:

Once Jacques the bell ringer broke a lantern with his head.

Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant is sitting.

The initial letter of each word in these phrases corresponds to the initial letter of the name of a certain color of the rainbow.

Many peoples, however, neglect the seventh color, they again have six colors in the rainbow. For example, Americans, Germans, French and Japanese believe that the rainbow has exactly six colors. But besides the quantity, there is another problem, the colors are also wrong: red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo and purple. Where is green, you ask? Simply, for example, in Japan there is no green color at all. And this is not because they are color blind, it's just that their language does not have green. It seems to be there, but it is a shade of blue, like we have scarlet - a shade of red. But the British do not have blue, for them it is light blue.

So the question "How many colors does the rainbow have?" - not from the competence of biology and physics. Linguistics should deal with it, since the colors of the rainbow depend only on the language of communication, there is nothing a priori physical behind them. There are seven colors in the rainbow of the Slavic peoples only because there is a separate name for blue and green.

It is very difficult to learn to distinguish colors for the Yakuts. Even intelligent Yakuts mix shades of colors. They are especially confused blue, blue, purple and green. For this whole group of colors they have a common name kyoh, and although their eyes are quite capable of distinguishing green from blue and blue, there are no individual names in the language. A rainbow (kustuk) is considered tricolor among the Yakuts. Differences in the perception of colors on the Asian mainland are noticeable even among different tribes of the same people. So, in the language of the Upper Kolyma Yukagirs there are no names for "green" and "blue" colors; the Lower Kolyma Yukaghirs have green and blue colors, but there is no word for yellow; Alazei Yukagirs have the words "green" and "yellow", but there is no word "blue". Researchers consider this fact evidence of the origin of the Yukaghir tribes from different ethnic ancestors.

A very interesting message about the non-seeing of certain colors by a number of peoples. It would be necessary to add facts known to science: the ancient Greeks and Persians did not see blue. Homer's sky is either "iron" (probably gray in cloudy weather), or "copper" (that is, golden - in sunny weather). The Papuans do not see the color green, living in the green jungle!

What other colors will appear in the rainbow of our descendants?

Often, when the sun leans over the horizon and illuminates the outgoing rain, a rainbow appears in the sky. This is a very beautiful natural phenomenon. How many colors are in the rainbow and which ones?

S. Marshak wrote a poem about this:

Spring sun with rain
Building a rainbow together
seven color semicircle
Of the seven wide arcs.

The nature of the phenomenon

This huge seven-colored sickle in the sky seems to be an extraordinary miracle. True, people have already managed to find a natural explanation for it. The white color of the sun consists of rays of different colors, or rather of light waves of different lengths. Longer wavelengths are red, shorter wavelengths are purple. The sun's rays, penetrating from the air into raindrops, are refracted, break up into their constituent light waves and come out already in the form of a spectrum, a multi-color stripe.

As you know, flowers do not exist in nature at all, they are only a figment of our imagination. Therefore, the actual number of colors of the rainbow can be expressed by the paradox: "Not at all or infinity." The spectrum is continuous, it has an infinite number of shades; the only question is how many of them we can distinguish and encode (name).

Fairy tale "The conversation of pencils"

The Bulgarian writer M. Stoyan devoted a fairy tale story to the colors of the rainbow, which he called "The Conversation of Pencils". Here he is.

Often, when it rains, you stand at the window, look, listen, and it seems to you that all things have a voice, that they all talk. And your pencils, right?

Hear, the red one says: "I am a poppy." An orange voice follows him: "I am an orange." Yellow is also not silent: "I am the sun." And the green rustles: "I am the forest." Blue softly hums: "I am the sky, the sky, the sky." Blue rings: "I am a bell." And purple whispers: "I am a violet."

The rain is ending. A seven-color rainbow curves above the ground.

“Look! exclaims the red pencil. Rainbow is me. - "And I!" - adds orange. "And I!" smiles yellow. "And I!" green laughs. "And I!" - having fun blue. "And I!" - exults blue. "And I!" Violet rejoices.

And everyone is happy: in the rainbow over the horizon - and a poppy, and an orange, and the sun, and a forest, and the sky, and a bell, and a violet. It has everything!

How many colors does the rainbow have? It seemed like a childish question. Everyone knows that there are only seven of them - remember the sentences about "pheasant" and "Jean the ringer". But not all peoples agree with this "truth". And if we turn to the scientific approach, then the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe seven colors will burst like a soap bubble.

At first glance, a rainbow looks like a bright arc made up of several colors. Their list is well known: from red to purple. In the scientific community, this figure was determined by Newton - in his work ("Optics"), he substantiated and expanded the theory of de Dominis and Descartes. The researcher explained the reasons for the interesting phenomenon and identified a list of colors. True, the sequence is somewhat different. Green is followed by blue, then indigo, and then purple. So to the question, how many colors does the rainbow have, it is difficult to give an exact answer.

The result differed depending on the people and the period of history. Aristotle, for example, defined only three colors: red, green and purple. He shared his idea of ​​this phenomenon in the section of his work "Meteorology". He later increased the number to seven.

The Australian Aborigines considered the rainbow to have six colors. The same amount is now allocated in some English-speaking countries. In the Congo, the rainbow arc is generally represented in the form of six bright snakes. Some African tribes, when asked how many colors the rainbow has, will give a concise answer: two. They divide the entire spectrum of colors into light and dark. German, Japanese and French children are taught the concept of six colors.

It is curious that the Japanese do not have a green color in the list. The British do not have blue - in their opinion, it is only a shade of blue. So the perception of the rainbow depends on the specific culture. Therefore, the issue of colors goes beyond the scope of physics and biology, and philology should also deal with it. For example, in the Kazakh language, the number of colors coincides with our usual one. But the views themselves are different.

In the rainbow, the spectrum is continuous - different colors pass into each other smoothly, through many intermediate shades. It is easy to find an infinite number of "colors" - they can be selected as much as you like. After all, these are conditional names, linguistic.

It is much easier to answer a practical question - for example, what to do if oily skin on the face? The problem is easy to solve and get a visible result. And if you remember that there are different rainbows? Arcs are more common, but there are others that occur for similar reasons, although they look almost the same. This is a foggy rainbow (white) - it appears on miniature droplets of fog, a fiery one (halo type) - on cirrus clouds, while the moon appears in the dark.