Roy G. Biv sounds like it is the name of a human. Why wouldn’t it be? It sounds completely normal.
However, Roy G. Biv is really a mnemonic device to remember the order of the colors of the rainbow. R stands for red, O stands for orange, Y stands for yellow, G stands for Green, B stands for Blue, I stands for Indigo, and V stands for violet.
These seven colors are the main colors that make up what we call white light. That is, the light that simply comes from any source without a filtered color.
The inclusion of seven colors comes from Isaac Newton who wanted the number of colors to match the numbers of days in a week, the number of notes in a scale, and the number of known planets at the time.
He had originally named only five colors: red, yellow, green, blue, and violet.
The reason for the order of Roy G. Biv is that the colors are arranged in order of decreasing wavelengths. Red has the biggest wavelength while violet has the lowest wavelength. This also allows people to know the order of the colors of a rainbow. Red should be on top, orange should follow, then yellow, then green, then blue, then indigo, and then the rainbow should have violet on the bottom.
A rainbow appears this way naturally because of the differences in wavelengths.
In England, another mnemonic device used to remember the colors of a rainbow is, “Richard of York gave battle in vain.” This is supposed to refer to the defeat and death of Richard of York.
Another mnemonic device that can be used to remember the colors, but from the shortest wavelength to the biggest is “Virgina in bed, get your organs red.” There is no information if this is supposed to refer to anything or if it is just a nonsense sentence like many other mnemonic devices.
There are also songs called “Roygbiv” or “Roy G. Biv.” Bands with these songs are Boards of Canada, They Might Be Giants, and Hip Hop Harry.
Roy G. Biv and variations have also been used as names for different fictional characters or screen names. There are also band names that use the name “Roy G. Biv” like the German Indie-Rock band caled “What Ever Happened to Roy G. Biv?”
Then, there is also ROY-G-BIV, a software solutions and robotic equipment company.
