Is Purple a Real Color? Science Says “Maybe Not”

Purple: It's the color of Barney the dinosaur, certain iris blooms, and eggplant. However, scientists now say that the color we know as purple may not actually exist.

That is going to come as surprising news to anyone who grew up with purple as their favorite color, or who was fond of music and stories featuring the shade, like Prince's "Purple Rain." But, there seems to be a pretty good reason why experts are now saying that the shade may not exactly be what we think it is.

That's because of the way the human body perceives things like light and wavelengths.

So, is purple a real color? Or are your eyes playing tricks on you when you see the shade in the wild (lavender and some fruits also sport the hue)? Keep reading to learn more about why experts are questioning purple's position as a color, and what they think is actually happening when the royal shade appears in front of us.

Spoiler alert: They may actually be onto something here.

We don't want to disappoint anyone, but according to Popular Mechanics, purple is not a real color. That's because the shade lacks a wavelength of light, which is something that so-called real colors like red, green, orange, blue, yellow, and indigo all have. Those who remember back to kindergarten may recall that red and blue make purple, however, when it comes to the overlapping red and blue wavelengths, the publication says that's not exactly what happens.

Instead, your brain gets confused by the combination and produces its own color: Purple.

And, there's another factor at play here, and it has to do with the way the cone cells in your eyes perceive color. The different types of cones can absorb different colors. While they don't actually "see" the colors they absorb, they do send messages to the brain based on the wavelengths, which is where the signals are processed to tell you which colors you are seeing.

Okay, we know that this is a lot to take in, since so many people choose the color most associated with royalty as their favorite. But, according to Popular Mechanics, purple isn't the only color that isn't real. Teal is also a color that lacks a wavelength of its own, leaving your eye's cones to create their own signals for the color.

Some other faux hues include magenta, olo (the new color that only exists using a laser, and then mixed colors like blueish-yellow and reddish-green.

According to ListVerse, the list actually goes on even longer, and includes laundry list of colors that we see in everyday life (like pink) but that doesn't have a wavelength of its own. Then there are colors that we think of as being part of the vast list of colors, that actually aren't even colors at all. For instance, white is actually the absence of color whereas black is considered the presence of all colors combined.

However, just because these colors "aren't real" in a scientific sense, it doesn't mean that they are any less real to us. So, go ahead purple lovers, and continue to champion your favorite shade. It may not be real due to a lack of wavelengths, but its presence in our lives indicates that it has a very real place in our hearts.