In a post here a bit over a year ago (link) I pointed out that a short video on the otherwise excellent Minute Physics YouTube channel managed to confuse pink (basically red plus white light) with magenta (white minus the middle wavelengths). That post still draws hits for some reason and has prompted a few comments, including one suggesting that people besides the folks at Minute Physics do indeed call magenta pink.

Curiously enough, this subject has lately come up in British politics. In the run-up to May’s parliamentary election in the UK, the Labour Party has lately caught flak for using a pink van as part of an outreach to women voters. In response to the mockery, Labour has claimed that the van isn’t really pink but actually cerise or magenta.

As you might expect, HBO’s John Oliver had a reasonably entertaining short report on this in the latest episode:

It’s not his best bit (I’ll get to one of those in a separate post), but since it ties in with the Minute Physics thing I thought it worth a mention.

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