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Is Rainbow a Color? Yes or No?

Published in Optics 1 min read

No, a rainbow is not a single color.

A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that appears as a multicolored arc in the sky. It's formed when sunlight is refracted, reflected, and dispersed in water droplets in the atmosphere. This process separates white light into its component colors, creating the spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Therefore, a rainbow is a combination of all the visible colors of light, not a color itself. As stated in one reference, "white light isn't really white; it's a mixture of all colors together." (Reference: Jul 3, 2021 source). Another source confirms this: "The refraction that happens in a rainbow isn't actually 'splitting the light into colors,' it's actually..." (Reference: Dec 31, 2022 source).

While rainbows are visually associated with a range of colors, and are often used symbolically to represent diversity (as seen in the LGBTQ+ flag, for example) it's crucial to understand that it is not a singular color itself.

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