SEATTLE -- Renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson always finds a way to take the complicated language of science and make them easily digestible for those of us who don't speak it fluently.
He also often uses science as a parallel to engage in discussions about social issues.
Tyson has done it again following the massacre at an Orlando gay-friendly nightclub. He used a series of tweets about the science of rainbows to reach out to the LGBT community.
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
