The number of colors in the rainbow among different nations. How does a rainbow appear? Colors in order (photo) How many different colors are there in the rainbow

As it turned out, not all nations have 7 colors in their rainbow. Some have six, particularly 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, an article was found on this topic. It was written so interestingly that I couldn’t resist and decided to re-publish it 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 method of memorization, is designed to remember the sequence of colors of the rainbow. Here, each word of the phrase begins with the same letter as the name of the color: each = red, hunter = orange, etc. In the same way, those who were initially confused about the sequence of colors of the Russian flag realized that the abbreviation KGB (from bottom to top) was suitable to describe it and were no longer confused.
Such mnemonics are acquired by the brain at the level of so-called “conditioning” rather than just learning. Considering that people, like all other animals, are terrible conservatives, then any information that has been drilled into the head since childhood for many is very difficult to change or is even simply blocked from a critical approach. For example, Russian children know from school that there are seven colors in the rainbow. This is rote, familiar, and many are sincerely perplexed as to how it is 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 “there are 24 hours in a day”, are only products of human imagination and have nothing to do with nature. One of those cases when an arbitrary fiction becomes “reality” for many.

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

So where did the notorious seven colors in the rainbow come from? This is exactly the rare case when the source is known to us. Although the phenomenon of the rainbow was explained by the refraction of sun rays in raindrops back in 1267, Roger Bacon, but only Newton thought of analyzing light and, refracting a ray of light through a prism, first counted five colors: red, yellow, green, blue, violet (he called it purple ). Then the scientist took a closer look and saw six colors. But the number six did not appeal to the believer Newton. Nothing other than a demonic obsession. And the scientist “spotted” another color. The number seven suited him: an ancient and mystical number - there are seven days of the week, and seven deadly sins. Newton thought of indigo as the seventh color. Thus Newton became the father of the seven-color rainbow. True, his very idea of ​​the white spectrum, as a collection of people of color, was not liked by everyone at that time. 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! But nevertheless, over time, I had to admit that the scientist was right.

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

Now our “magical 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 even more complicated. 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, believe 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's in Japanese simply no. The Japanese, when rewriting Chinese characters, lost the green character (it exists in Chinese). Now in Japan there is no green color, which leads to funny incidents. A Russian specialist working in Japan complained about how he once had to look for a long time for a blue (aoi) folder on his desk. Only the green one lay in plain sight. Which the Japanese see as blue. And not because they are color blind, but because in their language there is no such color as green. That is, it seems to be there, but it’s a shade of blue, like our scarlet – a shade of red. Now, under external influence, there is, of course, green color(midori) - but from their point of view this is 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 colors, but not on the composition. The English (and other Romance languages) do not have blue color. And if there is no word, then there is no color. They, of course, are also not colorblind, and they distinguish cyan from dark blue, but for them it is just “light blue” - that is, not the main one. So the Englishman would have been looking for the mentioned folder even longer.

Thus, the perception of colors depends only on a specific culture. And thinking in a particular culture depends heavily on language. The question of “colors of the rainbow” is not a matter of physics and biology. It should be dealt with by linguistics and, even more broadly, by philology, 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 whatever you like - with the words that exist in the language. In the rainbow Slavic peoples seven colors only because there is a separate name for blue (cf. the British) and green (cf. the Japanese).

But the problems of flowers don’t end there; life is even more confusing. IN Kazakh language, for example, the rainbow has seven colors, but the colors themselves do not match the Russian ones. The color that is translated into Russian as blue is in the Kazakh perception a mixture of blue and green, yellow is a mixture of yellow and green. That is, what is considered a mixture of colors among Russians is considered an independent color among Kazakhs. American orange is by no means our orange, but often rather red (in our understanding). By the way, in the case of hair color, on the contrary, red is red. It’s the same with old languages ​​- L. Gumilyov wrote about the difficulties of identifying colors in Turkic texts with Russian ones, for example “sary” - it can be the color of gold, or 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 collection of 1073 it is written: “In the rainbow, the properties are red, and blue, and green, and crimson.” Then, as we see, in Rus' 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 there really in a rainbow? This question makes virtually no sense. Wavelengths visible light(in the range of 400-700 nm) can be called whatever colors are convenient - they, the waves, are neither warm nor cold. In a real rainbow, of course, there is an infinite number of “colors” - a full spectrum, and you can select as many “colors” from this spectrum as you like (conventional colors, linguistic ones, those for which we can come up with words).

An even more correct answer would be: not at all, colors do not exist in nature at all - only our imagination creates the illusion of color. R.A. Wilson liked 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 completely different ways. As someone noted: “steelworkers distinguish a lot of shades in the transition from yellow to red...”

The same Wilson also noted the following point: “Did you know that an orange is ‘really’ blue? It absorbs 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 the orange is blue, but we don’t see it; in our brains orange is orange, and we see it. Who is the Master who makes an orange orange?

Osho wrote about the same thing: “Each ray of light consists of seven colors of the rainbow. Your clothes are red for one strange reason. They are not red. Your clothes absorb six colors from the beam of light - all except 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. This is very controversial situation: Your clothes are not red, that’s why they appear red.” Let us note that for Osho the rainbow is seven-colored, even though he already lived in “six-colored” America.

From point of view modern biology In a rainbow, a person sees three colors, because a person perceives shades by three types of cells. Physiologically modern ideas healthy people must distinguish between 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) - that is, RGB. Three colors are enough for us to create any shade. The rest of the infinite number of different intermediate shades is completed by the brain, based on the ratios of irritability of these three types of cells. Is this the final answer? Not really, this is also just a convenient model (In “reality”, the eye’s sensitivity to blue is significantly lower than to green and red).

Thais, like us, are taught in school that there are seven colors in the rainbow. The veneration of the number seven arose in old times because of mankind's knowledge of the seven then known to him celestial bodies(moon, sun and five planets). This is where the seven-day week appeared in Babylon. Each day corresponded to its planet. This system was adopted by the Chinese and spread further. Over time, the number seven became almost sacred; each day of the week had its own god. The Christian “six-day” with an additional day off on Sunday (in Russian, 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 perceived colors among Thais depends on where they live. The city will soon have an official number of seven. But in the provinces it’s different. Moreover, the colors of the rainbow can vary even in neighboring villages. For example, some settlements in the northeast have two orange colors"som" and "sed". The second word means something like “more orange.” As is the case, say, with the Chukchi, who have more in their language different names for white, since they have long distinguished shades white snow, the Thais’ selection of a separate color is not accidental. In those places it grows on trees beautiful flower“dokjang”, the color of which is different from the usual color of orange “som”.

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 stereotype 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 observation site, on the characteristics of the observer’s vision.

Aristotle, in particular, identified only three colors in the rainbow: red, green and violet. All other colors, he believed, were a mixture of these three. IN Kievan Rus you would be authoritatively assured that the rainbow has four colors. The Kiev chronicler wrote in 1073: “In the rainbow, the essence is scarlet, and blue, and green, and crimson.”

But the aborigines of Australia count six colors in the rainbow, but some African tribes are still confident 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 the refraction of sunlight in raindrops was explained in 1267 by Roger Bacon. But only Newton analyzed light, and by refracting a ray of light through a prism, he initially counted 5 colors: blue, green, yellow, red and violet (for him purple).

Later, while conducting research, the scientist took a closer look and noticed the sixth one. But Newton was such a believer that he did not like this number, and he considered it a demonic obsession. And then the scientist “spotted” another color. Newton thought of indigo as the seventh color. He really liked the number seven. It was considered ancient and mystical, there were 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 an order that corresponds to the spectrum of visible light. There are phrases in Russian that help you remember their sequence:

How Jacques the bell-ringer once 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 a certain color rainbows.

Many peoples, however, neglect the seventh color; their rainbow again has six colors. For example, Americans, Germans, French and Japanese believe that the rainbow has six colors. But besides the quantity, there is another problem, the colors are also not the same: red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo and violet. You may ask, where is the green one? It’s just that, for example, in Japan there is no green color at all. And this is not because they are color blind, they just don’t have the color green in their language. It seems to exist, but it is a shade of blue, like our scarlet - a shade of red. But the British do not have blue, for them it is light blue.

Therefore, the question “How many colors does a rainbow have?” - not within the competence of biology and physics. It should be dealt with by linguistics, 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 for Yakuts to learn to distinguish colors. Even intelligent Yakuts mix shades of colors. They especially confuse blue, blue, violet and green. For this whole group of colors they have common name kyuoh, and although their eye is quite capable of distinguishing green from blue and dark blue, there are no individual names in the language. The 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. Thus, in the language of the Upper Kolyma Yukaghirs there are no names for “green” and “blue” colors; the Lower Kolyma Yukaghirs have “green” and “blue” colors, but do not have the word “yellow”; among the Alazeya Yukaghirs the words “green” and “yellow” are found, but there is no word “blue”. Researchers consider this fact evidence of the origin of the Yukaghir tribes from different ethnic ancestors.

Very interesting message about the inability of some peoples to see certain colors. Should have added known to science facts: the ancient Greeks and Persians did not see of blue color. In Homer the sky is “iron” (apparently gray in cloudy weather), then “copper” (that is, golden - in the solar). Papuans do not see the color green, living in the green jungle!

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

What is a rainbow?

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

A rainbow appears because light emanating from the sun or another source is refracted in droplets of water slowly falling to the ground. With their help White light"breaks" to form the colors of the rainbow. They are in order for a reason various degrees light deviations (for example, red light is deviated 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 when low light. When the circle formed by the “sky bridge” is formed, the center is always on a straight line passing through the Sun or Moon. For those who observe this phenomenon from the ground, this “bridge” appears as an arc. But the higher the vantage point, the more complete the rainbow appears. If you observe it from a mountain or from the air, it can appear before your eyes in the form of a whole circle.

Order of the colors of the rainbow

Many people know a phrase that allows them 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 remember how this line sounds: “Every Hunter Wants to Know Where the Pheasant Sits” (by the way, now there are many analogues of this famous monostich, more modern, and sometimes very funny). The colors of the rainbow are, in order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

These colors do not change their location, imprinting in memory the eternal appearance of such an incredibly beautiful phenomenon. The rainbow we often see is primary. 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. It's pretty a rare event, in which white light is reflected twice in the droplets. In this case, the colors of the rainbow are already arranged in order reverse direction(from purple to red). At the same time, the part of the sky that is located between these two arcs becomes darker. In places with very clean air, you can even observe a “triple” rainbow.

Unusual Rainbows

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

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

In order for it to appear, it is necessary high humidity and a light source. 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 these conditions that light rays, passing through the transparent medium of droplets, break up into a color spectrum consisting of seven colors.

This is the range that the human eye can discern:

• 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 O hunter and wants h nah, G de With goes f adhan." Other mnemonics about the rainbow also have a right to exist:

1. The mole stroked the sheep and the giraffe and the bunny;
2. How Jacques the bell-ringer once broke a lantern with his head;
3. Every designer wants to know where to download Photoshop.

Read about how to easily memorize poetry

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

We come up with images based on the colors of the rainbow

On 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 the resulting images

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

Chain method

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

Example:

To the top Kremlin tower An orange is stuck in, and an ear of corn grows from the orange. The corn, in turn, is gnawed by a crocodile and at the same time he sits on the Moon. The Avatar is holding the moon above him, and the Cheshire Cat is digging into his leg =)

To learn how to connect images correctly, watch my video:

The “Unusual Story” method

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

Example:

The Kremlin tower grows an orange tree, on which ears of corn emerge from the oranges. Corn cobs hatch into little crocodiles that crawl on the moon. This Moon revolves around the Avatar, and the Avatar strokes the Cheshire Cat =)

The Pilot Method for remembering the colors of the rainbow

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

Example:

• Pillar– the Kremlin Tower swings at the top of the pillar;
• Lenin monument– there is an orange peel on the head of the monument;
• Bench– there is corn growing on the bench and so on...

Also, as locations we can highlight "Microscope" method, and take the human body as an object. Since the rainbow has seven colors, and human body If you can distinguish 7 parts of the body, then this method can be very convenient for memorization.

Which method do you like best? Write about it in the comments below. Also, don’t forget to share materials about memory development with your friends and ask questions about this topic that interest you!!!

A bright, cheerful, luminous rainbow has been considered a symbol of good luck and luck since ancient times. If a rainbow flashes in the sky, it means the day will be happy and easy. And some even make a wish when they see this beautiful natural phenomenon in the sky. It is believed that the number of colors a person sees in a rainbow is the number of wishes he can make.

What is a rainbow

A rainbow is an optical phenomenon that does not only appear in the sky. Essentially, this is the refraction of colors. Physicists have proven that light has a certain spectrum of shades, and the rainbow clearly demonstrates this.

It occurs due to the refraction of light in tiny droplets of water from fog or rain that float in the atmosphere. Light is reflected differently in water droplets, hence the different shades.

Where is she observed?

Rainbows can be seen not only in the sky. You can see a small rainbow if you sit next to a fountain and catch the refraction of light near the stream of water. You can see it on a white sheet of paper when you write with a transparent pen on a sunny day. You can also see a rainbow through a prism if you hold this prism to the sun's rays or to an ordinary light bulb.

But most often, of course, we see it in the sky.

How many colors are in the rainbow

Science has proven that the rainbow has seven colors. This:

• red;
• orange;
• yellow;
• green;
• blue;
• blue;
• violet.

In ancient times, there were not enough precise optical instruments to carefully examine how many colors a rainbow has. But the human eye cannot always accurately determine the color scheme.

Aristotle, for example, identified only three primary colors - red, yellow and green. But in Japanese culture there is no traditional green color, so residents of the Land of the Rising Sun believe that there are only six colors in the rainbow.

A great mathematician Isaac Newton spent a lot of time studying the refraction of light and came to the conclusion that there are five colors in the rainbow. Then he looked at the sixth one - orange. This number - six - seemed to him imperfect for describing natural phenomena, so he decided to add a blue color to the rainbow, which he called “indigo”.

We have 7 and they have 6

If you think that after scientists have proven the fact how many colors are in a rainbow, all people on the planet agreed with this statement, then you are deeply mistaken. For some reason, in China they believe that there are five colors in the rainbow - exactly the same number as there are elements on the planet. Until now, in Germany, America, England, France and a number of other countries, children are told that the rainbow consists of six colors.

Why is this happening? The fact is that blue and blue are very similar to each other, they are distinguishable only by the degree of depth. In addition, in a number of languages, “blue” and “blue” are called the same. In English there is only one way to describe these colors. general word. That is why there is still such confusion about how many colors there are in the rainbow.

Easy to remember

The order of colors in a rainbow is always unchanged, no matter what time we see it and what time of day it is, whether it is large or small, whether it stood in the sky for a long time or flashed and went out in a few seconds. The first color is red, which gradually becomes lighter and turns into orange. In turn, the orange becomes even lighter and turns into yellow. Yellow gradually turns green, then blue appears, which turns into rich blue, and the last, final color of the rainbow spectrum is violet.

Remembering the order of the colors in the rainbow is quite easy. You just need to learn one mnemonic phrase - and you can easily name which flowers are in the rainbow, without hesitation. So, memorize this sentence: "Every Hunter Wants to Know Where the Pheasant Sits." Simply and easily. Now all you have to do is take the first letter of each word and name the color of the rainbow:

• each is red;
• hunter - orange;
• wishes - yellow;
• know - green;
• where - blue;
• sitting - blue;
• pheasant - purple.

It was this phrase about a hunter and a sitting pheasant that took root in Russian-speaking culture. Although there are still a few good suggestions for remembering the rainbow spectrum. For example: “Once upon a time, Jean the City Beller Broke the Lantern.” More modern interpretations have also appeared: “Every Designer Wants to Know Where to Download Photoshop.”

Well, as they say, it’s up to you to choose how to remember the arrangement of colors in a rainbow.

Warm or cold

A rainbow in the sky always seems bright, cheerful, lively and very warm. It shines and sparkles and it seems that everything consists of But, nevertheless, it also contains cold tones.

Let's figure out how many cool colors are in the rainbow. Everything related to blue refers to cool tones. Thus, there are three cool colors in the rainbow - blue, cyan and green. But violet, which has shades of purple, is neither warm nor cold tones; it is transitional.

Accordingly, there are three rainbows: red, orange and yellow.

This palette, which divides colors into warm and cool, is used by artists and painters. There are even several that divide the solar spectrum into warm, cool and in-between shades.

Always against the sun

Rainbows always appear opposite side from the sun. So if you look at it, the sun will always be shining from behind. Most often, a rainbow appears in the morning or evening, and this also has a completely reasonable explanation from the point of view of physics. When the sun is on the horizon, the rainbow is fullest and largest. The higher the sun rises, the smaller the semicircle becomes. And when the star rises to a height of 43 degrees relative to the horizon, it is no longer possible to see the rainbow. Because the angle for refraction of light is inappropriate.

The red color of the rainbow is always located in the outer part of the arc, and the violet color is always located in the inner part. But! A double rainbow occurs very often, when there are two arcs in the sky at once. So, in the second rainbow the colors are reversed.

By the way, seeing two rainbows is also considered better luck than one.

The number of colors in the rainbow always remains the same, but ideas about this beautiful optical phenomenon people's have changed over time. Ancient tribes, for example, divided the rainbow into two colors - dark and light.

Rainbows can be seen not only in the sun's rays, but also after darkness falls. Then Sun rays begin to reflect off the moon, and a rainbow may appear.

The rainbow does not freeze in place, and two people who are located in different parts of the city will see it completely differently. To one it will seem that it is hovering over the river, and to another it will seem that it is located directly above the new buildings. That is why, when a rainbow is photographed in the same city at the same time, completely different pictures are obtained.

Not all people can see all seven colors of the rainbow. It depends on how sharp your eyesight is. Some may notice peach in the rainbow, and they're not making this up. After all, seven colors are the basic classic colors. And there really are a great many shades in the rainbow, and some are impossible to catch with the human eye.

Rainbows can disappear if you wear polaroid glasses. The coating of these glasses is positioned so that the light is refracted vertically and the person simply does not see what others see.