The Verse - Volume 6
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Purple Particulars - Does Purple Exist?

Well, I bet you didn't expect to get any philosophy or physics in Purple Particulars, but here it is. The most surprising thing about purple is that it does not exist objectively. That is to say, there's no single wavelength of light that can properly be called "purple." Humans only perceive purple when a mixture of blue light and red light hits their retinas. This makes more sense if you look at a spectrum; you'll notice that red is on one end and blue is close to the other end. There's no point where the two overlap to form an intermediate shade, unlike the green that appears between yellow and blue. According to the light spectrum, you can't have a single wavelength that is a "reddish blue" or a "bluish red."

Now I know those of you that have read this far are saying: "Hey, what about violet? Violet has its own band on the spectrum, on the other side of blue-and isn't violet just another name for purple?" Well.yes and no. Technically, the poem is correct: "Roses are red, Violets are blue ." Violet is really nothing more than a very dark shade of blue, just as indigo is a light shade. By definition, violet can't have any red in it, even though we commonly talk as though it does. Frustratingly, dictionaries are misleading on this subject. In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary , one of the definitions of violet is "a color produced by a combination of red and blue in equal proportions; a bluish purple color," while in the same dictionary purple is defined similarly as "[a] red and blue color." True enough, you can mix red and blue paint or pigment and see purple, but if you're going to be exact, you can't call any mixture of red and blue "violet," and you must be willing to accept that what you see as "purple" is really an illusion created in your brain. So, next time you see one of the purple guys, remember our shirts and pens are really blue and red. I guess that should make those KU fans out there really happy.purple is just blue and red!

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