What is the math behind the Colour Wheel

Question

I want to create a pie with 12 slices, with each slice a different colour.

Pretty much every colour wheel seems to follow the same format; eg: http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm .

But what algorithms are there for generating the colours? What is the math behind RGB(theta)? Surely there must be some established science on this, but Google is not giving me any clues.

Answer 1

Have a look at http://www.easyrgb.com it has the algorithms behind many color conversions. Here's the RGB -> HSV one.

var_R = ( R / 255 )                     //RGB from 0 to 255
var_G = ( G / 255 )
var_B = ( B / 255 )

var_Min = min( var_R, var_G, var_B )    //Min. value of RGB
var_Max = max( var_R, var_G, var_B )    //Max. value of RGB
del_Max = var_Max - var_Min             //Delta RGB value 

V = var_Max

if ( del_Max == 0 )                     //This is a gray, no chroma...
{
   H = 0                                //HSV results from 0 to 1
   S = 0
}
else                                    //Chromatic data...
{
   S = del_Max / var_Max

   del_R = ( ( ( var_Max - var_R ) / 6 ) + ( del_Max / 2 ) ) / del_Max
   del_G = ( ( ( var_Max - var_G ) / 6 ) + ( del_Max / 2 ) ) / del_Max
   del_B = ( ( ( var_Max - var_B ) / 6 ) + ( del_Max / 2 ) ) / del_Max

   if      ( var_R == var_Max ) H = del_B - del_G
   else if ( var_G == var_Max ) H = ( 1 / 3 ) + del_R - del_B
   else if ( var_B == var_Max ) H = ( 2 / 3 ) + del_G - del_R

   if ( H < 0 ) H += 1
   if ( H > 1 ) H -= 1
}