Why isn't pink in the visible spectrum between blue and red?

[Gara]

where is pink in the visible spectrum? it can't be between blue and red cos they're on the opersit ends...

after red is infer red, and after blue is ultra violet?

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Originally posted by Gara
where is pink in the visible spectrum? it can't be between blue and red cos they're on the opersit ends...

well it must be between red and blue because you see it...
an technically speaking infrared is before red

note: it is not a rule that a colour must have a single frequency. What we see as pink could be a superposition of different lightwaves with different frequencies

 

[selfAdjoint]

There is also importantly saturation, or the amount of white light (all frequencies) that accompanies the color. Pink is red with a lot of white.

 

[Gara]

so how come pink doesn't have its own frequency, but other colours that are made from mixing other colours, such as yellow do?

 

[russ_watters]

Originally posted by Gara
so how come pink doesn't have its own frequency, but other colours that are made from mixing other colours, such as yellow do?

Yellow isn't made by mixing other colors together.

 

[krab]

Read about it http://www.photo.net/photo/edscott/vis00010.htm . Our eyes have 3 color receptors: they are roughly red green and blue, but they overlap. Therefore we cannot tell the difference between a single frequency like yellow which excites both the red and green receptors, and a mixture of red and green in some proportion which results in the same excitation of red and green receptors.

 

[chroot]

Originally posted by Gara
so how come pink doesn't have its own frequency, but other colours that are made from mixing other colours, such as yellow do?

Make a mix of equal parts red, green, and blue light, and you'll see the combination as white. Now add just a bit more red to the mix, and you'll have pink.

- Warren

 

[Bonfield]

Originally posted by Gara
so how come pink doesn't have its own frequency, but other colours that are made from mixing other colours, such as yellow do?

Pink isn't the only one. Another example is brown and there are many others. Krab's explanation tells why.

 

[Gara]

well that clears that up :)