What are the colors of the white light spectrum?

Answer 1

White light (such as sunlight) and colors are closely related. A piece of glass or crystal can cause a beam of sunlight to break up into a rainbow: a beautiful separation of colors. The technical term for a rainbow is a spectrum. The colors in a spectrum range from deep purple to brilliant red. One way to remember the colors of the spectrum is with the mnemonic device (memory clue) ROY G. BIV, which stands for Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. English physicist Isaac newton (1642-1727) was the first person to study the connection between white light and colors. Newton caused a beam of white light to fall on a glass prism and found that the white light was broken up into a spectrum. He then placed a second prism in front of the first and found that the colors could be brought back together into a beam of white light. A rainbow is a naturally occurring illustration of Newton's experiment. Instead of a glass prism, though, it is tiny droplets of rainwater that cause sunlight to break up into a spectrum of colors, a spectrum we call a rainbow. The word "color" actually refers to the light of a particular color, such as red light, yellow light, or blue light. The color of a light beam depends on just one factor: the wavelength of the light. Wavelength is defined as the distance between two exactly identical parts of a given wave. Red light consists of light waves with a wavelength of about 700 nanometers (billionths of a meter), yellow light has wavelengths of about 550 nanometers, and blue light has wavelengths of about 450 nanometers. But the wavelengths of colored light are not limited to specific ranges. For example, waves that have wavelengths of 600, 625, 650, and 675 nanometers would have orange, orangish-red, reddish-orange, and, finally, red colors. Color: A property of light determined by its wavelength. Colorant: A chemical substance-such as ink, paint, crayons, or chalk-that gives color to materials. Complementary colors: Two colors that, when mixed with each other, produce white light. Electromagnetic radiation: A form of energy carried by waves. Frequency: The number of segments in a wave that pass a given point every second. Gray: A color produced by mixing white and black. Hue: The name given to a color on the basis of its frequency. Light: A form of energy that travels in waves. Nanometer: A unit of length; this measurement is equal to one-billionth of a meter. Pigment: A substance that displays a color because of the wavelengths of light that it reflects. Primary colors: Colors that, when mixed with each other, produce white light. Shade: The color produced by mixing a color with black. Spectrum: The band of colors that forms when white light is passed through a prism. Tint: The color formed by mixing a given color with white. Tone: The color formed by mixing a given color with gray (black and white). Wavelength: The distance between two exactly identical parts of a wave. Light can be seen only when it reflects off some object. For example, as you look out across a field, you cannot see beams of light passing through the air, but you can see the green of trees, the brown of fences, and the yellow petals of flowers because of light reflected by these objects. To understand how objects produce color, imagine an object that reflects all wavelengths of light equally. When white light shines on that object, all parts of the spectrum are reflected equally. The color of the object is white. (White is generally not regarded as a color but as a combination of all colors mixed together.) Now imagine that an object absorbs (soaks up) all wavelengths of light that strike it. That is, no parts of the spectrum are reflected. This object is black, a word that is used to describe an object that reflects no radiation. Finally, imagine an object that reflects light with a wavelength of about 500 nanometers. Such an object will absorb all wavelengths of light except those close to 500 nanometers. It will be impossible to see red light (700 nanometers), violet light (400 nanometers), or blue light (450 nanometers) because those parts of the spectrum are all absorbed by the object. The only light that is reflected-and the only color that can be seen-is green, which has a wavelength of about 500 nanometers. White light can be produced by combining all colors of the spectrum at once, as Newton discovered. However, it is also possible to make white light by combining only three colors in the spectrum: red, green, and blue. For this reason, these three colors of light are known as the primary colors. (For more on the concept of primary colors, see subhead titled "Pigments.") In addition to white light, all colors of the spectrum can be produced by an appropriate mixing of the primary colors. For example, red and green lights will combine to form yellow light.

Answer 2

What we see as white light is actually a mix of all the colors. When white light is passed through a prism, the white light is broken down into the colors of the visible spectrum:
1.red
2.orange
3.yellow
4.green
5.blue
6.indigo
7.violet

An easy way to memorize them is by remembering : ROY G BIV