By Bronte Price, PoliticKING
Neil deGrasse Tyson explained the science behind a rainbow on Tuesday, the colors of which have become a global symbol of the LGBT community.
Just two days after the deadliest shooting in American history at a popular gay club in Orlando, the famous astrophysicist used his knowledge of the rainbow to express his condolences to the LGBT community.
In a series of posts to Twitter, Tyson called rainbows “a personal, yet communal gift from the laws of optics,” and why the pot of gold is always out of reach. Tyson ended his lesson on rainbows with a moving tribute to the city of Orlando itself.
The exact Rainbow any of us sees in the sky is entirely our own -- a personal, yet communal gift from the laws of optics.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
Rainbows are always the same angular size in the sky — they are various segments of a circle that is 84-degrees across.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
A Rainbow forms only broadside to your line of sight. That's why the pot of Gold at its base remains eternally out of reach.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
Isaac Newton, in Opticks (1704), published his discovery that white light is composed of colors - the colors in Rainbows.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
If we had vision like @StarTrek’s Giordi, Rainbows would look twice as thick, and include parts of ultraviolet & infrared.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
Newton assigned seven colors to the color-continuous Rainbow: Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue-Indigo-Violet. Meet ROY G. BIV
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
Most people can take or leave Indigo as a Rainbow color, but Newton was mystically fascinated with 7, so we’re stuck with it.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
And sometimes you will find colors of the Rainbow on flags. pic.twitter.com/fl9AJuJANK
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 14, 2016
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