Red

On the color wheel long used by painters, and in traditional color theory, red is one of the three primary colors, along with blue and yellow. Painters could mix red and yellow to get orange, and red and blue to get violet.

In modern color theory, also known as the RGB color model, red, green and blue are additive primary colors. Red, green and blue light combined together makes white light, and these three colors, combined in different mixtures, can produce almost any color. This is the principle used to make the colors on your computer screen and television.

So that the maximum number of colors can be accurately reproduced on your computer screen, each color has been given a code number, or sRGB, which tells your computer the intensity of the red, green and blue components of that color. The intensity of each component is measured on a scale of zero to 255, which means the complete list includes 16,777,216 distinct colors and shades. The sRGB number of pure red, for example, is 255, 00, 00, which means the red component is at maximum intensity, and there is no green or blue. The sRGB number for crimson is 220, 20, 60, which means that the red is slightly less intense and therefore darker, there is some green, which leans it toward orange; and there is a larger amount of blue, which makes it slightly blue-violet.

 

In western countries red is a symbol of martyrs, courage and sacrifice, ^[23] Beginning in the Middle Ages, the Pope and Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church wore red to symbolize the blood of Christ and the Christian martyrs. The banner of the Christian soldiers in the First Crusade was a red cross on a white field, the St. George’s Cross. According to Christian tradition, Saint George was a Roman soldier who was a member of the guards of the Emperor Diocletian. who refused to renounce his Christian faith and was martyred. The Saint George’s Cross became the Flag of England in the 16th century, and now is part of the Union Flag of the United Kingdom, as well as the Flag of the Republic of Georgia. ^[64]

In 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots, accused of treason against Queen Elizabeth I, wore a red shirt at her execution, to proclaim that she was an innocent martyr.^[65]

The Thin Red Line was a famous incident in the Battle of Balaclava (1854) during the Crimean War, when a thin line of Scottish Highlander infantry, assisted by Royal Marines and Turkish infantrymen, repulsed a Russian cavalry charge. It was widely reported in the British press as an example of courage in the face of overwhelming odds and became a British military legend.

In the 19th century novel The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, a story about the American Civil War, the red badge was the blood from a wound, by which a soldier could prove his courage.[66