Magenta Doesn’t Exist on the Spectrum of Visible Light

Magenta can be found where on the rainbow? Nowhere, of course, is the solution. And to some, that implies that magenta doesn't even exist as a color. But what's going on when you can also walk out and purchase a magenta pencil crayon right this second?

On a color wheel, magenta can be found where red and purple meet. But on the light spectrum, this doesn't take place. This means that unlike the other colors in a rainbow that we can identify, magenta doesn't have a wavelength. However, it does exist in a variety of wavelengths, and when we see magenta, our brain recognizes this.

This means that magenta is produced by our brain, which fills in some of the gaps left by the way our eyes interpret different light wavelengths. To be fair, though, each hue is created in our brain based on how light wavelengths are analyzed and processed. Though it requires our brain to make it real, it is real in the same sense that any color is real.