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At the Reference Desk: Commonly Asked Questions

© Gillian Davis

More frequently asked questions at the Reference Desk, and the reference sources used to answer them ... Are there other questions that you frequently get? Are there particular sources you like to use to answer them? Please drop me a note or start a discussion!

If you didn't see last week's article, have a look at it.

Now, onto the questions:

"What are the colours of the rainbow?"

Answer: According to the educational website About Rainbows (I found this site by searching the Librarians' Index to the Internet), the traditional answer to this question is that there are seven colors in a rainbow, as follows:

· Red
· Orange
· Yellow
· Green
· Blue
· Indigo
· Violet

But the site also comments: "actually, the rainbow is a whole continuum of colors from red to violet and even beyond the colors that the eye can see".

In Bad Science: Recurring Science Misconceptions in K-6 Textbooks, we're told that in fact, there are not seven colors in the rainbow, that this is a common misconception. They tell us: "There is a very large number. And neither are there sharp divisions between the bands of color, yet numerous textbooks depict them. But in reality, between yellow and green we find yellow-green, and between green and yellowgreen is greenish yellowgreen, and on and on".

The World Book Encyclopedia (2000 Edition) provides a similar answer:

"People often specify the colors in sunlight, from the longest wavelength to the shortest, as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Other people also mention the color indigo, which is closely related to blue, between blue and violet. All these colors shade into their neighboring colors, however, and each shading is itself a color. Nature produces many more colors than people have ever named" (Rainbow entry, vol. 16, p. 128).

"What is the proper way to tie a tie?"

Answer: eHow is a great source for 'how-to' type of information, explaining how to do almost everything! There are several different sections that show how to tie a tie, including the basic eHow to Tie a Tie, the more fancy eHow to Tie a Windsor Knot and eHow to Tie a Double Windsor, as well as eHow to Tie a Bow Tie. All sections are complete with step-by-step instructions and clear photos for illustration.

Another Web site that gives us an answer to this question is BizWeb: How to Tie a Tie, which also includes diagrams and step-by-step instructions, but isn't as user friendly as eHow in my opinion.