How many colors are in the rainbow and which ones. How many colors are in the rainbow? What colors are in the rainbow Number of rainbow colors in different countries

- one of the most beautiful natural phenomena. It can be found after rain, near waterfalls, near the shores of various reservoirs and in fog in sunny weather.

In order for it to appear, high humidity and a light source are needed. In this case, the light source should be behind the observer, and the rays should fall on the drops at an angle of forty-two degrees.

It is under such conditions that light rays, passing through the transparent medium of drops, break up into a color spectrum consisting of seven colors.

It is this range that the human eye can distinguish:

Red;
Orange;
Yellow;
Green;
Blue;
Blue;
Violet.

Surely from childhood, many of you remember a mnemonic verse for remembering the colors of the rainbow: “ TO every about hotnik well does h nat, G de from goes f azan. Other rainbow mnemonics also have the right to exist:

A mole to a sheep, a giraffe to a bunny stroked old jerseys;
How once Jacques the ringer broke a lantern with his head;
Every designer wants to know where to download photoshop.

How easy it is to memorize verses, read

Thanks to these combinations of words, we have tips on the first letters for each of the colors. You can also come up with a mnemonic verse yourself by connecting your imagination. Well, in this article, let's talk about an easier and more effective method of remembering the colors of the rainbow - a method based on visualization.

We come up with images for the colors of the rainbow

At the initial stage, think about what you associate each of these colors with. The selected images must be of the same color and must be clearly visualized.

For example:

Red - Kremlin tower;
Orange - corn;
Yellow - banana;
Green - crocodile;
Blue - moon;
Blue - Avatar (from the film of the same name);
Violet - Cheshire Cat.

Serial connection of received images

In order to link our images, we will apply one of the methods described below. Which one you prefer is up to you.

Chain method

Here we clearly connect the images to each other for the colors of the rainbow, fixing the images among themselves for 4-6 seconds. Connections should be as bright and unusual as possible, in general, memorable.

Example:

An orange is stuck on the top of the Kremlin tower, and an ear of corn grows from an orange. Corn, in turn, gnaws crocodile and at the same time he sits on the moon. The Avatar holds the moon above him, and the Cheshire Cat dug into his leg =)

For information on how to link images correctly, see my video:

Method "Unusual story"

We connect the images into a ridiculous story, imagining how each previous image interacts with the next.

Example:

The Kremlin tower grows an orange tree on which corncobs come out of the oranges. Corn cobs hatch into small crocodiles that crawl on the moon. This Moon revolves around the Avatar, and the Avatar strokes the Cheshire Cat =)

The Loci method for memorizing the colors of the rainbow

To use this method, create in your imagination a room or a city route with objects on which you will attach images to colors. Keep connections of images with locations for 4-6 seconds.

Example:

Pillar- the Kremlin tower sways at the top of the pillar;
Lenin monument- an orange peel is put on the head of the monument;
Bench- corn grows on a bench and so on ...

Also, as locations, you can select microscope method, and take the human body as an object. Since the rainbow has seven colors, and there are 7 body parts in the human body, this method can be very convenient to remember.

Which way do you like the most? Write about it in the comments below. Also, do not forget to share with your friends materials about the development of memory and ask questions that interest you on this topic !!!

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!

As it turned out, not all nations have 7 colors in the rainbow. Some have six, in particular in America, and there are those who have only 4. In general, the question is not at all simple, as it might seem at first glance

And as often happens on the vast expanses of the Internet, there was an article on this topic. It was written so interestingly that I could not resist and decided to republish it on my site so that everyone could get acquainted with it.

The phrase "every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits" has been known to everyone since childhood. This mnemonic device, the so-called acrophonic memorization method, is designed to memorize the sequence of colors of the rainbow. Here, each word of the phrase begins with the same letter as the color name: each = red, hunter = orange, and so on. In the same way, those who were at first confused about the sequence of colors of the Russian flag realized that the abbreviation KGB (bottom to top) was suitable for its description and did not confuse it anymore.
Such mnemonics are assimilated by the brain rather at the level of the so-called "conditioning", and not just learning. Considering that people, like all other animals, are terrible conservatives, then any information hammered into the head from childhood is very difficult for many to change or even simply blocked from a critical approach. For example, Russian children know from school that there are seven colors in the rainbow. This is jagged, familiar, and many sincerely wonder how it happens that in some countries the number of colors of the rainbow can be completely different. But the seemingly undoubted statements “there are seven colors in the rainbow”, as well as “24 hours in a day” are only products of human imagination, which have nothing to do with nature. One of those cases when arbitrary fiction becomes "reality" for many.

The rainbow has always been seen in different ways in different periods of history and in different nations. It distinguished three primary colors, and four, and five, and as many as you like. Aristotle singled out only three colors: red, green, purple. The Australian Aboriginal Rainbow Serpent was six-colored. In the Congo, the rainbow is represented by six snakes - according to the number of colors. Some African tribes see only two colors in the rainbow - dark and light.

So where did the infamous seven colors in the rainbow come from? This is just the rare case when the source is known to us. Although the phenomenon of the rainbow was explained by the refraction of sunlight in raindrops back in 1267, Roger Bacon, only Newton thought of analyzing the light and, refracting a beam of light through a prism, first counted five colors: red, yellow, green, blue, violet (he called it purple ). Then the scientist looked closely and saw six flowers. But the believing Newton did not like the number six. Nothing but a demonic delusion. And the scientist "looked out" another color. The number seven suited him: the number is ancient and mystical - there are seven days of the week, and seven deadly sins. The seventh color Newton fancied indigo. So Newton became the father of the seven-color rainbow. True, at that time not everyone liked his very idea of the white spectrum, as a set of colors. Even the eminent German poet Goethe was indignant, calling Newton's statement "a monstrous assumption." After all, it cannot be that the most transparent, purest white color turned out to be a mixture of “dirty” colored rays! Nevertheless, over time, I had to admit the correctness of the scientist.

The division of the spectrum into seven colors took root, and the following memorizer appeared in the English language - Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain (In - for blue indigo). And over time, they forgot about indigo and there were six colors. So, in the words of J. Baudrillard (albeit said on a completely different occasion), “the model has become the primary reality, hyperreality, turning the whole world into Disneyland.”

Now our "Magic Disneyland" is very diverse. Russians will argue until they are hoarse about the seven-color rainbow. American children are taught the six primary colors of the rainbow. English (German, French, Japanese) too. But it's still more difficult. In addition to the difference in the number of colors, there is another problem - the colors are not the same. The Japanese, like the British, are sure that there are six colors in the rainbow. And they will be happy to name them for you: red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo and violet. Where did the green go? Nowhere, it simply does not exist in Japanese. The Japanese, rewriting Chinese characters, lost the green character (Chinese has it). Now in Japan there is no green color, which leads to funny incidents. A Russian specialist working in Japan complained that once he had to look for a blue (aoi) folder on the table for a long time. In a conspicuous place lay only green. Which the Japanese see is blue. And not because they are color blind, but because there is no such color as green in their language. That is, it seems to be there, but it is a shade of blue, like we have scarlet - a shade of red. Now, under external influence, there is, of course, a green color (midori) - but from their point of view, this is such a shade of blue (aoi). That is not the main color. So they get blue cucumbers, blue folders and blue traffic lights.

The British will agree with the Japanese on the number of flowers, but not on the composition. The English in the language (and in other Romance languages) do not have blue. And if there is no word, then there is no color. Of course, they are also not color blind, and they distinguish blue from blue, but for them it is just “light blue” - that is, not the main one. So the Englishman would have looked for the mentioned folder even longer.

Thus, the perception of colors depends only on a particular culture. And thinking in a particular culture is highly dependent on language. The question of "colors of the rainbow" is not from the sphere of physics and biology. Linguistics and, even more broadly, philology 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. The spectrum of light is continuous, and its arbitrarily selected areas (“colors”) can be called anything you like - with the words that are in the language. There are seven colors in the rainbow of the Slavic peoples only because there is a separate name for the color blue (compare with the British) and for green (compare with the Japanese).

But the problems of flowers do not end there, in life it is still more confusing. In the Kazakh language, for example, the rainbow has seven colors, but the colors themselves do not coincide with Russian ones. The color that is translated into Russian as blue is a mixture of blue and green in Kazakh perception, yellow is a mixture of yellow and green. That is, what is considered a mixture of colors by Russians is considered an independent color by Kazakhs. American orange is by no means our orange, and often more red (in our understanding). By the way, in the case of hair color, on the contrary, red is red. It is the same with the old languages - L. Gumilyov wrote about the difficulties of identifying colors in Turkic texts with Russian ones, for example, “sary” - it can be both the color of gold and the color of leaves, because. occupies part of the "Russian yellow" range and part of the "Russian green".

Colors also change over time. In the Kiev Izbornik of 1073 it is written: “In the rainbow, properties are scarlet, and blue, and green, and crimson.” Then, as we see, in Russia four colors were distinguished in the rainbow. But what are these colors? Now we would understand them as red, blue, green and red. But it was not always so. For example, what we call white wine was called green wine in ancient times. Crimson could mean any dark color, and even black. And the word red was not a color at all, but originally meant beauty, and in this sense it was preserved in the combination “red maiden”.

How many colors are in the rainbow really? This question is practically meaningless. The wavelengths of visible light (in the range of 400-700 nm) can be called whatever colors are convenient - they, the waves, are neither warm nor cold from this. In a real rainbow, of course, an infinite number of “colors” is a full spectrum, and you can select any number of “colors” from this spectrum (conventional colors, linguistic ones, those for which we can come up with words).

An even more correct answer would be: not at all, in nature, flowers do not exist at all - only our imagination creates the illusion of color. R.A. Wilson used to quote an old Zen koan on this subject: "Who is the Master who makes the grass green?" Buddhists have always understood this. The colors of the rainbow are created by the same Master. And he can create them in very different ways. As someone noted: “steelworkers distinguish a lot of shades in the transition from yellow to red ...”

The same Wilson also noted this moment: “Do you know that an orange is 'really' blue? It absorbs the blue light that passes through its skin. But we see an orange as "orange" because there is no orange light in it. The orange light reflects off its skin and hits the retina of our eyes. The "essence" of an orange is blue, but we don't see it; orange is orange in our brains and we see it. Who is the Master who makes an orange orange?”

Osho wrote about the same: “Each ray of light consists of seven colors of the rainbow. Your clothes are red for a strange reason. They are not red. Your garments absorb six colors from a beam of light - all but red. Red is reflected back. The remaining six are absorbed. Because red is reflected, it gets into other people's eyes, so they see your clothes as red. It's a very contradictory situation: your clothes are not red, that's why they appear red." Note that for Osho, the rainbow is seven-colored, although he already lived in "six-colored" America.

From the point of view of modern biology, a person sees three colors in a rainbow, since a person perceives shades with three types of cells. Physiologically, according to modern concepts, healthy people should distinguish three colors: red, green, blue (Red, Green, Blue - RGB). In addition to cells that respond only to brightness, some cones in the human eye respond selectively to wavelength. Biologists have identified three types of color-sensitive cells (cones) - the same RGB. Three colors are enough for us to create any shade. The rest of the infinite variety of different intermediate shades is completed by the brain, based on the ratios of the irritation of these three types of cells. Is this the final answer? Not really, this is also just a convenient model (In “reality”, the sensitivity of the eye to blue is significantly lower than to green and red).

Thais, like us, are taught at school that there are seven colors in the rainbow. The veneration of the number seven arose in ancient times because of the knowledge of the seven celestial bodies known to mankind at that time (the moon, the sun and the five planets). Hence the seven-day week appeared in Babylon. Each day corresponded to its planet. This system was adopted by the Chinese and spread further. The number seven eventually became almost sacred, each day of the week had its own god. The Christian "six days" with an additional day off Sunday (in Russian, it was originally called "week" - from "not to do") spread throughout the world. So it is unlikely that Newton could have "discovered" another number of colors in the rainbow.

But in everyday life, the number of colors perceived by Thais depends on where they live. The city will soon have an official number - seven. But in the provinces it's different. Moreover, the colors of the rainbow can vary even in neighboring villages. For example, in some settlements in the northeast, there are two orange colors "catfish" and "sed". The second word means something like "more orange". As is the case, say, with the Chukchi, who have more different names for white in the language, since they have long distinguished shades of white snow, the selection of a separate color by Thais is not accidental. In those places, a beautiful “dokjang” flower grows on trees, the color of which differs from the usual color of the “catfish” orange.

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. It is this that 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).

What is a rainbow?

Causes

The order of the colors of the rainbow

Fancy rainbows