Trivia #7 - Ratio of colors on the flag of France
Let me ask you a question: what is the ratio of colors on the flag of France?
"What a dumb question... obviously it is 1:1:1 !"
Well... the answer is not that obvious. I would say you are only partially correct.
Because it depends on which type of flag you are talking about. If it is the national flag, it is indeed 1:1:1, but for the civil and naval flag, the ratio is 30:33:37.
Why?
The intention of making is 30:33:37 is to make it look visually better. When the flag is moving at a distance, the tail end would appear shorter, so the actual longer length of the red segment can offset the visual illusion. This will make the flag appear to have equal widths of columns. Another reason is to enhance the visibility of the flag on the sea by making the red column wider.
However, at the time of Napoleon I, the ratios of flags have been changed back to 1:1:1. But soon a regulation in 1853 has changed the navy flags back to the ratio of 30:33:37, which has been kept till today.
Image source: wikipedia
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That's really unexpected. I thought the design of those flags should be highly symmetric but didn't expect such interesting ratio. Flags of other countries also have intriguing stories and after reading your post I am looking for more of those stories :)
thanks for reading, yes this is really unexpected for me too! But surprisingly we never realize this, so it proves that this design really corrects the visual illusion. I will continue to write more articles of this kind, stay tuned!
mmmm. If I was this countries's people, I will change the flag color.
Hmm, that is interesting. I would have never known any of this information. Or even thought about it for that matter!
Glad that you find it interesting! I was amazed when I first heard this from my friends!
Follow me if you want to learn more interesting stuffs, I will post this kind of posts very often :)
Nice one. Sometimes people do crazy things for silly reasons.
I prefer the 1:1:1. Symmetrical looks better in my opinion.
Very interesting.
Didn't think of the ratio of colour would mean sth
Glad that you find it interesting! Yup that's exactly why we say this is trivia ;)
Follow me if you want to learn more interesting stuffs, I will post this kind of posts very often :)