Roy G. Biv

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Roy G. Biv is a popular mnemonic device used for memorizing the traditional optical spectrum:

• Red
• Orange
• Yellow
• Green
• Blue
• Indigo
• Violet

The colors are arranged in the order of decreasing wavelengths, with red being about 700 nanometers and violet being about 400 nm.

In truth, since the spectrum is a continuum, the selecting or omitting of individual colors in a list of representative colors is arbitrary. The traditional inclusion of the color indigo is attributed to Isaac Newton, who wanted the number of colors in his spectrum to come out to seven to match the number of days in the week, the number of notes in the major scale, and the number of known planets.^[1][2] He originally (1672) named only five primary colors: red, yellow, green, blue and violet; only later did he introduce orange and indigo^[3]. The Munsell color system, the first formal color notation system (1905), also uses only five primaries: red, yellow, green, blue and purple.

The meaningless but speakable word ROYGBIV is also used as a mnemonic for the spectral colors, as is its slightly less euphonious reverse VIBGYOR.

Another traditional mnemonic device has been to turn the seven initial letters of the spectral colors into a sentence. In England probably the best known of these is "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain". The mnemonic is said to allude to the defeat and death of Richard, Duke of York at the Battle of Wakefield, a battle which Richard had himself started and which lead to the defeat of his forces and his death as well as that of his son.

[edit] Cultural references

• "Roygbiv" is the name of a song by Boards of Canada on their album Music Has The Right To Children.
• Roy G. Biv was the civilian identity of the superhero Spectral in the Ultraverse comic series, The Strangers
• Vib Gyor is the name of an English band from Leeds who reversed the initial letters order to create their name.

[edit] References

1. ^ Hutchison, Niels (2004). Music For Measure: On the 300th Anniversary of Newton's Opticks. Colour Music. Retrieved on 2006-08-11.
2. ^ Newton, Isaac (1704). Opticks. 
3. ^ Mills, A. A., Newton's Prisms and His Experiments on the Spectrum, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 36, No. 1. (Aug., 1981), pp. 13-36