Nature of Light Article

[Ron Bigelow]

I have posted an article on the nature of light on my web site. For those interested, the article can be found at:



http://ronbigelow.com/articles/light/light.htm



Ron Bigelow

 

[Hertz van Rental]

I notice that you make the same mistake in your article as most people do about the 'rainbow'.
Sir Isaac Newton was many things, and one of them was a mystic. He believed that numbers were 'magic' - in particular, the number seven.
When he examined the continuous spectrum of light he actualy only discerned six colours: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet.
He felt this was wrong. To maintain number harmony in creation he believed there should be seven colours and so invented 'Indigo'. He even invented the name.
Indigo does not exist in the spectrum but generations of people, having grown up being told it was so, believe it to be real.
What I have said is verifiable fact, if one chooses to do research*.
There are also one or two other inaccuracies in your 'article'.
As, indeed, there were in your little essay on composition.
Perhaps if you actualy came onto the board proerly to discuss these matters rather than just posting links to your website?


*I am lucky, being situated only 10 miles from the house where Newton lived and worked. It is a museum - and still has the original apple tree in the garden.

 

[lazarus219]

I had a quick look, but wasnt in the mood for a long read,

Hertz, thanks for the info. I like knowing little thnigs like that

But like hertz said, im hopnig you aren't just on here to post links to your website and then never come on here again. That kind of thnig isnt appreciated on hee (or any forums really) unless done in the proper forums, that being said if you are becoming a member of these forums- Welcome!

 

[inneist]

When he examined the continuous spectrum of light he actualy only discerned six colours: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. He felt this was wrong.

It is a doubtful claim. Probably spurious. An actual reading of Newton's "Opticks" (1704) could show that five colour terms were first employed in Book I, Part I, Experiment III. It was by Experiment VII of Part I that Newton added orange and indigo to his five colours, thus arriving at seven. Throughout the treatise, the seven-fold division appears at about the same frequency as the five-colour description. Usages of two-colour and six-colour versions were also included.

Along the continuous spectrum of light, there are no clear boundaries between adjacent colours. Newton described in "Opticks" how each colour of the spectrum merged gradually into one another to give ‘hues’.

About Indigo, please check out the timeline in the following link:

http://www.indigolightwave.com/indigo.htm

On the choice of seven, I tend to believe it was largely aesthetically motivated to render symbolic meanings. Of particular interest, "the parallel between colors of the spectrum and notes of the musical scale."

http://home.comcast.net/~sean.day/art-history.htm

His colour music wheel:
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~colmusic/zac.gif