Under what circumstances can you see a purple rainbow?

What-A-Mess

All pure rainbows have purple in them. Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet (Purple) AKA: Roy G. Biv Some consider the Spectrum to be made of only 6 and not 7 colors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color Jul 16 06, 7:00 PM

peasypod

Homer described a purple rainbow in the Iliad. http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol6/rainbow.htm Jul 16 06, 7:13 PM

peasypod

"Plato says, that men admiring it feigned that it took origination from one Thaumas, which word signifies admiration. Homer sings:— Jove paints the rainbow with a purple dye, Alluring man to cast his wandering eye. (Iliad, xvii. 547.)" Jul 16 06, 7:15 PM

gdec1

I couldn't find a purple one, but would you settle for red. Until I was looking for an answer to this question I would not have believed the different kinds of rainbows there are. This is a very cool website on the subject with some beautiful pictures. http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/rainbows/redbow.htm Jul 16 06, 7:18 PM

pu2-ke-qi-ri

See this link about the meaning of the word we translate as "purple" from Homeric Greek: http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/Classics/purple.html Greek words describe color in a slightly different way than we do, and can refer more to the "quality" of a color than the hue itself. Here, "porphureos" can mean "shimmery, iridescent," probably the best sense to take it in here. Jul 16 06, 8:29 PM

darkpresence

Excellent site gdec, the red rainbow is very similar to what I was looking for. I read years ago that a rainbow seen at sunrise high in the sky appears purple because of the same kind of diffusion that produces the red rainbow, but I've been unable to find it again. The dark band seen between two rainbows is about the closest so far. There are other types that I haven't seen mentioned on that site, for instance it's supposed to be possible to see vertical rainbows at sea. Jul 17 06, 3:39 PM