
To remember it, some of you may have learned the acronym ROY G BIV. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

There are seven musical notes, which fit perfectly with Newton’s seven colors of the rainbow. To create the color wheel, Newton arranged the seven musical notes and put corresponding colors next to each one, bringing us back to the magical number: seven. He decided to display the color spectrum in a circle because he felt that indigo (the last color in the color wheel) was similar to the first color, red. The color wheel was created by Newton so that relationships between colors were easier to define and identify. The color wheelĪnd, finally, we’re getting back to the reason you clicked on this article: the color wheel.

But how did the wavelengths of light turn into the color wheel that we all know today? So, when Newton decided how many colors to break up the light spectrum into, guess which number he picked? That’s right-seven.Īnd so, the seven colors of the rainbow were born. His theory was that seven was a magical number because it is the sum of the three known spiritual forces (father, son, and holy ghost) and the four earthly materials (earth, wind, fire, and water). What you need to know about Pythagoras is that he loved the number seven. Pythagoras was pretty influential during his day, and our guy Newton was a big fan of his work. So, that explains the first dead genius and the rainbow thing, but maybe you’re wondering about the other dead genius and the number seven?Įnter, Pythagoras of Samos: a Greek philosopher and mathematician. That’s how he came to establish the color wheel and the seven colors of the rainbow. In 1665, Newton decided he would split up this spectrum of color (ahem, rainbows) into distinct colors so that it would be easier to talk about and understand.

In fancy science terms, the visible spectrum of light is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that the human eye can see. We’ve all seen the colored light that reflects in the sky after rainstorms, known as the visible spectrum of light. He also created a formula for the three laws of motion. It all started with the colors of the rainbow and Sir Isaac Newton, an all-around genius and super cool guy who first discovered the concept of the visible spectrum of light. And you might be surprised by how strange and exciting the story is. We're self-proclaimed color experts at Linearity Curve (formerly Vectornator), so we’re going to give you a quick history lesson on how the color wheel came to be.
