Magenta Is a Lie

Look at the visible light spectrum - the rainbow. Red sits on one end with wavelengths around 700 nm. Violet sits on the other at about 380 nm. Between them lies the continuous band of spectral colors.

Yet many colors you can name are not single wavelengths at all. Magenta is the most famous missing case: you see it constantly in flowers, sunsets, clothing, and art, even though no pure magenta wavelength appears in the rainbow.

Your brain creates magenta when red and blue cone cells fire simultaneously without green. It is a neural invention, not a physical wavelength. Magenta bridges the gap between the spectrum's endpoints.