Friday, October 28, 2005
Concepts of color
I have always wondered if everybody saw the same colors. We think we do, but do we really? I might see blue and call it blue, but what you call blue might actually be green to me if I saw the world through your eyes. That’s probably not the way it is, but the concept has always fascinated me. It’s not like it really matters either, but it is fun to think about. Maybe we all see things differently.
Another thing that fascinates me about color is the “true” color of things. We see things because light is reflected off of them into our eyes (or they emit light themselves). If nothing reflected (or emitted) light all we would be able to see was black, because all the light would be absorbed. Light is actually a spectrum of colors. White light is a mixture of all the colors, so what we see as white is actually something that reflects all the colors of light. It really isn’t white, but is actually black. And what we see as black is actually white, because it absorbs all the colors. We just can’t see it that way because we only see colors that reach our eyes, not ones that are absorbed by objects. That kind of puts a whole new spin on the issue of race.
I like that there are so many different colors. That’s why I could never understand why black and white weren’t “real” colors. I’m told it’s because they’re actually mixtures of colors. But then we would be left with only 7 visible colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet). And why is orange considered a color anyway? Isn’t that a mixture of red and yellow? What about green? And what makes red so different from violet? All colors are actually mixtures and therefore black and white should also be considered colors. I find it funny how colors are so debatable. If even colors are so controversial, then what isn’t?