Which one is the color? The black or the white?

Something to think about it

Technically, pure white is the absence of color. In other words, you can't mix colors to create white. Therefore, white is the absence of color in the strictest sense of the definition. But in terms of light: White is produced when all colors of the visible spectrum are combined.

As for black: Equal amounts of each of the primary colors (red, yellow, blue) will equal black (or close to black).

So, which one?

Both and neither ... no need to fit in a box!

a reply to: Abednego

Paint all colours on a wheel and spin it really fast, it gets white. So it is a moving combination of all colours...
Whoa hu? Mind blown I hope?
To add to your confusion: Let's be philosophical, black is the dead combination, white the moving one

Is an orange really orange, or every color that is not orange? All of the other colors are being absorbed by the surface of the fruit. The orange is the part of the spectrum that is reflected away.

a reply to: Abednego

Here we go...this is something that I learned in graphic design school:

Emitted Color (Additive Color)

First, there is emitted color, or simply put, light. White light, such as that emitted from the sun, actually contains all colors, which is the reason that you can hold up a prism and watch it separate all of the colors into individual hues. There is no such thing as black light--that is called darkness, or a lack of light. That contains zero colors (hues) because, as I stated, light is what produces the color.

These colors are reproduced using RGB (Red, Green, Blue) in our modern screens today, and you can get a true black on the screen by removing each color down to zero. You get white by adding all the colors together. The levels for each color run from zero to 255, so if each color is set to zero, you have black; if each is at 255, you have white.

Reflected Color (Subtractive Color)

The other type of color is created by light reflecting off of a surface. When you have a red shirt on, that shirt is red because it absorbs all of the other colors produced by a light and only reflects the red to your eye. Grass is green because all other colors are absorbed and the green is reflected to your eye. Et cetera, blah blah, woof woof.

The actual primary colors, contrary to popular belief, are not the blue-red-yellow combo that we are taught as children, but are instead a combo of cyan-magenta-yellow. Red is created by combinine magenta and yellow. Blue is obtained by mixing cyan and magenta. If you combine all of these together, you do not get black (nor do you when combining BRY), but a muddy grey mixture. In printing, black is added in, and is a pigment that is found in nature and doesn't have to be mixed with anything else to achieve it. "K" is the symbol for black.

This is why, when you look look at printer cartridges, you see CMYK (or variants of, like "light cyan") and not BRY. And if you really want a deep black, you create a "rich black," by adding in percentages of all the CMY colors (my preference is 30%, 20%, 20%, but can change).

I hope this helps.

ETA: This is why you have different "white balance" settings on cameras, because of the color of the light--incandescent lights produce a yellow hue, so it makes everything look yellow, whereas flourescent lights generally produce a blue hue to the image. This is all based on the assumption that your white balance is set for sunlight, which is the standard that reproduces true color properly.

Well if we go to very deep level, colors do not exist. They are just radiation, certain wavelength we see. The eye doesn't see colors, the wavelengths are converted into colors in our brains. We see black as black because it doesn't radiate any wavelength, while white radiates them all. True black object is invisible to our eye, we cannot directly see it.

First post...

Ever...

Which side of the mirror are you on?

The observer sees the opposite of what color the object is.

I see what is rejected/reflected or emitted by the object I am observing.

White is the true color. Like motion or heat. Black is absence like cold is absence. My vote is white.

S&F right after I read the T&C

I hope I'm saying this right but…

I see black as the platform which makes light possible. Without black light doesn't exist.

So black isn't a color, it just is.

All the science about colors is unnecessary really. Black is black and white is white as viewed by the observer. So both are colors. It doesn't matter to know why red is red, if you see red liquid on something when you are working, look for a cut, don't start wondering why the red is red. To a point it is good to understand why colors are colors but to dwell on it can confuse life. We are supposed to enjoy the colors, except when it is blood, not get confused over the lack of clarification of whether white is actually a color.

If you take paint and remove all colors, it becomes transparent. If you mix all colors, it'll look black enough.

With light, the opposite seems true. Like you stated, white is the combination of colors.

Furthermore, your first assumption that pure white is the absence of all colors is false in my opinion. White isn't even a pure color (it doesn't have a single wavelength)

a reply to: Thebel

Yours should be the most accurate official explanation with a logical expansion.

But now let's also bring up that wavelengths are not a size of zigzag movement of something within the room as it is usually confused for due to its math graphic. Like sound it might expand and go back in the room.
As sight is an illusion, not the same for everyone in every situation, you can say black objects are visible by the difference to that around it, also you see reflections (metal, mirrors, water) and patterns on it as well as shadows and other indirect influences to the light making you see without color.
As the eyes only perceive the influence of the movement of these specific speeds of movement = light, everything too fast for humans to see is invisible or by influence transparent such as the rising hot air movement of a fire.

Thereby, color is but an illusion and as it is way more complicated, the original question can only be answered if a specific official definition of color is asked for. That would be white, as black is the absence of the specific speeds which we see.
By the way, there are infinite "colors" and we just see a few. That which we cannot see is neither white nor black, it is transparent, such as air or anything heated up enough to rise. Seeing black means the absence of light and not enough focus to see more details.

Electronic displays mix intensities of 3 colors (red, blue, green). When all 3 are at full intensity you have white, when all 3 are off, the screen is black, as its background was made to be. Making it only 3 colors isn't natural, which is why LED light is harmful to eyes and less costly.

Now before making more conclusions from this, I have to let you know that you can also make the obvious conclusion that others are yourself, so any accidental harm you do by inventing goes onto many painful lives. Welcome to hell.

I think someone took their first trip to Colorado.

Or maybe Oregon.

a reply to: Abednego

Sooo, by definition, they are both colors. Colors as we recognize.

This is one of the darkest materials in the world - "Vantablack" made of carbon nanotubes:

...is nothing real?!

a reply to: Abednego

www.google.com...
congratulations. mystery solved

Was your questions a play on words meant to be fascinating like riddle? Or was it a serious question?

The term means what it has grown in to. Whether or not it's phonetically or logically accurate is not relevant. I mean it wasn't a word created for purposes of physics.

edit on bWednesday201440b by Infinitis because: (no reason given)