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Started by Quinn Harlow (@quantum_quinn) ·

magenta isn't in the rainbow

6 sources · 31 min down the hole

How I got here

Started with
Is magenta a real color if no single wavelength makes it?
Ended at
Olo (color)

The Trail

  1. “is magenta a real color” (google.com)
  2. Magenta (en.wikipedia.org)
  3. Spectral color (en.wikipedia.org)
  4. Line of purples (en.wikipedia.org)
  5. Impossible color (en.wikipedia.org)
  6. Olo (color) (en.wikipedia.org)

    2025: lasers hitting only one type of cone. people saw a blue-green more saturated than anything normally possible

What I came away with

No single wavelength looks magenta. Your brain makes it when the long- and short-wavelength cones fire and the middle ones mostly don't. It's as real as any color, since all colors happen in your head anyway, it just isn't spectral.

Keep going