Colour Mixing: The Mystery of Magenta

Why doesn't magenta appear in the rainbow? The answer lies not in physics but in biology. Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe Can you help us translate this video? http://www.youtube.com/timedtext_video?v=iPPYGJjKVco Science presenter Steve Mould demonstrates the strange phenomenon of colour mixing, in which not everything is as it seems. The cone cells within our eyes are responsible for the colours we see, but are only sensitive to Red, Green and Blue light. So how are we able to see so many colours when we can only directly detect three and how do our brains see the colour magenta which doesn't have a wavelength? Steve explains all with the help of his coloured torches and explores how everyday technology fools our brains into seeing more. Find out more about Steve Mould on his nerdy blog http://stevemould.com or @MouldS More about Magenta: http://ekrelliott.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/on-magenta/ The Ri is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution and Tumblr: http://ri-science.tumblr.com/ Our editorial policy: http://www.rigb.org/home/editorial-policy Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter