Science says the color purple isn't actually real

Science says the color purple isn't actually real

The color purple has long been a symbol of royalty, creativity, and mystery. But according to science, it’s also something else: a figment of our imaginations. While it looks just as real as red or blue, purple is actually an optical illusion crafted by your brain. Look closely at a rainbow, and you’ll spot red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, but not purple. That’s because every color in a rainbow corresponds to a single wavelength of …

Purple haze: The human eye does not actually see purple, it's...

You might be today years old when you realize there is no purple in the rainbow. There is no P in ROYGBIV. But wait, what about violet? Well, despite what you may have come to believe, violet is not purple. In fact, violet (along with the rest of the colors in a naturally occurring rainbow) has something purple doesn't — its own wavelength of light. Anyone who ever ended up with a sunburn knows violet wavelengths are real, as the Sun's ultraviol…