Dark Side of the Moon

If there's one thing I learned from taking chemistry, it's that the primary colors are not as basic as red, yellow, and blue. In order to attain a true color palette that isn't muddied, you must begin with magenta, yellow, and cyan.
Color physics are so interesting to me. Everything is an illusion created by the mind. Color is simply a refraction of light, a particular electromagnetic wavelength. Understanding how color works and how it becomes intensified and diminished for particular results is a skill necessary in order to capture your viewer's attention in a piece. Knowing how the eye responds and reads color can allow you to create something even more beautiful.

Figure 2.5 in Mary Stewart's Launching the Imagination is reminiscent of the cover to a Pink Floyd album and something out of Magic School Bus episode. Different colors refract more than others, red refracting the least. That's why the colors always refract in the same order and how rainbows aren't seen with blue on top! (Unless you're upside-down.)