https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Sapphirejuliaexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-04-18T10:08:14ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2537:_Painbow_Award&diff=220295Talk:2537: Painbow Award2021-11-03T23:28:11Z<p>Sapphirejulia: Added signatures because I forgot them (and forgot to log in), oops.</p>
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LOL [[Special:Contributions/127.0.0.1|127.0.0.1]] 19:49, 3 November 2021 (UTC)<br />
:f!rst p0st [[Special:Contributions/172.69.170.53|172.69.170.53]] 19:50, 3 November 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Mein gott, this color palette IS actually painful to look at. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.161|172.70.178.161]] 20:02, 3 November 2021 (UTC)<br />
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The caption has changed since the image was captured ("color gradient" changed to "color scale"), we need to pull the new comic. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:08, 3 November 2021 (UTC)<br />
:I updated the file, although the changes haven't taken effect yet. [[User:Theusaf|theusaf]] ([[User talk:Theusaf|talk]]) 20:37, 3 November 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Does anyone know what Lambda is often used for in physics (or other sciences) as it relates to Theta, where Theta is phase? [[Special:Contributions/127.0.0.1|127.0.0.1]] 20:48, 3 November 2021 (UTC).<br />
:I'm surprised YOU don't know. {{w|Wavelength}}. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:38, 3 November 2021 (UTC)<br />
::Why are you talking to yourself? [[Special:Contributions/127.0.0.1|127.0.0.1]] 21:07, 3 November 2021 (UTC).<br />
::Wouldn't that make this chart self-referential, in that each color output at any particular x,y coordinate can somehow be measured in terms of wavelength and phasing (red shift)? [[Special:Contributions/127.0.0.1|127.0.0.1]] 21:17, 3 November 2021 (UTC).<br />
:::I think you're responding to my comment (it seems to be above it, though?). Not sure exactly what you mean by self-referential either, but I suppose somewhat. Assuming this is a black body curve, the emission spectra has a peak at the point where the graph shows "peak" intensity; this wavelength is based off the temperature of the black body itself (see Wien's displacement law), whilst the redshift is based on the relative velocity of an observer & the black body (i.e. a star, usually).--[[User:Sapphirejulia|Sapphirejulia]] ([[User talk:Sapphirejulia|talk]]) 23:28, 3 November 2021 (UTC)<br />
:If I had to guess (as an "armchair" astronomer), it seems to be similar to that of a black body (Planck curve) but also showing the phase. A phase shift to me means change in wavelength, i.e. Delta lambda / lambda, but that's normally denoted by the z-parameter (see Wikipedia's redshift article). There's also a phase angle listed under astronomy on Wikipedia, which could relate but never heard of it before. --[[User:Sapphirejulia|Sapphirejulia]] ([[User talk:Sapphirejulia|talk]]) 23:28, 3 November 2021 (UTC)<br />
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Scientific publications aren't the only contenders for the award. I see a Painbow during almost every TV weather report. Captured an image of one of them, hope it displays correctly.<br />
[[file:WeatherBow.png|thumb|center|550px|alt=Painbow used by a TV weather forecast]]<br />
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[[User:JohnB|JohnB]] ([[User talk:JohnB|talk]]) 22:20, 3 November 2021 (UTC)</div>Sapphirejulia