An interesting concept

First of all, there is no real point to this thread. I just wanted to share a concept that I find fascinating.

Everything we see has it's own colour. Nothing is colourless.
Most people think of colour as "part" of that object, what I mean by that is, colour is something taken for granted; leaves are green, bananas are yellow. These things don't change to we associate the object with that colour. I need you to think of colour and how we see it as it really is.

(A very basic explanation)
Sunlight contains every colour in the colour spectrum, we can't see them because all together they form what you might call "white" light. When this light reaches an object, lets say an orange, all wavelengths except for the one corresponding with orange (635~590nm) are absorbed. The orange wavelengths are reflected and our eyes perceive the orange as the colour orange. I won't get in to how our eyes do that, it's not important in this topic.

So if you were to take away that light source, theoretically the orange would be colourless, colour can't exist. If you were able to somehow see the orange without the presence of light (impossible), what would you see? You wouldn't be standing next to an orange coloured orange in a dark room, but a colourless orange.

It's a bit hard to explain (I didn't do it very well) but I find it fascinating to think about. What do you think?

Very fascinating, thank you for giving my mind something to ponder for a bit.

reply to post by SpearMint


I was actually just trying to explain this idea to a couple of friends a few nights back. I don't think they really grasped the significance, though I'm sure they understood the concept. I wonder about it frequently myself; what things must actually look like I mean, without the "interference" from color.

Another thing I have wondered, is what would an object familiar to us here on Earth (an orange, let's say) would look like if we took it to a solar system revolving around a sun that doesn't produce white light. Depending on what parts of the spectrum the light would be lacking, we could easily find ourselves in a situation where the necessary frequencies to make our orange look orange are not present. So, what would the orange look like then?

Originally posted by RatoAstuto
reply to post by SpearMint

 

I was actually just trying to explain this idea to a couple of friends a few nights back. I don't think they really grasped the significance, though I'm sure they understood the concept. I wonder about it frequently myself; what things must actually look like I mean, without the "interference" from color.

Another thing I have wondered, is what would an object familiar to us here on Earth (an orange, let's say) would look like if we took it to a solar system revolving around a sun that doesn't produce white light. Depending on what parts of the spectrum the light would be lacking, we could easily find ourselves in a situation where the necessary frequencies to make our orange look orange are not present. So, what would the orange look like then?

That's a very interesting idea too, I think it would be possible to do that experiment here on earth by filtering out the right wavelengths. Not something the average person could do effectively though.

That is an interesting subject to think about.
Now if you could explain why 80% of most meat taste like chicken.....

Originally posted by mwood

That is an interesting subject to think about.
Now if you could explain why 80% of most meat taste like chicken.....

Perhaps a better question would be, why is that taste associated with chicken if so many things taste like that?

Originally posted by SpearMint

Originally posted by RatoAstuto
reply to post by SpearMint

 

I was actually just trying to explain this idea to a couple of friends a few nights back. I don't think they really grasped the significance, though I'm sure they understood the concept. I wonder about it frequently myself; what things must actually look like I mean, without the "interference" from color.

Another thing I have wondered, is what would an object familiar to us here on Earth (an orange, let's say) would look like if we took it to a solar system revolving around a sun that doesn't produce white light. Depending on what parts of the spectrum the light would be lacking, we could easily find ourselves in a situation where the necessary frequencies to make our orange look orange are not present. So, what would the orange look like then?

That's a very interesting idea too, I think it would be possible to do that experiment here on earth by filtering out the right wavelengths. Not something the average person could do effectively though.

Hmm, quite true, I never even thought of that. I tend to get so caught up in the conceptual side of science, I forget what we can actually do to test the ideas. And, I actually think this experiment might be easier to carry out than you think. I'll speak to my grandfather about it and get back to you. Hell, I may even have some test data to offer

Originally posted by RatoAstuto
Hmm, quite true, I never even thought of that. I tend to get so caught up in the conceptual side of science, I forget what we can actually do to test the ideas. And, I actually think this experiment might be easier to carry out than you think. I'll speak to my grandfather about it and get back to you. Hell, I may even have some test data to offer

That would be great!

As a theatrical lighting designer, I can say this concept is known and studied in depth.
A few links to keep you interested. I'm sure there are better out there. My college texts were full of examples.

en.wikipedia.org...
www.roctronics.com...
www.rosco.com...

How about when there is no physical sun present?
When you are dreaming there is no physical sun but there is colour.

Originally posted by SpearMint
First of all, there is no real point to this thread. I just wanted to share a concept that I find fascinating.

Everything we see has it's own colour. Nothing is colourless.
Most people think of colour as "part" of that object, what I mean by that is, colour is something taken for granted; leaves are green, bananas are yellow. These things don't change to we associate the object with that colour. I need you to think of colour and how we see it as it really is.

(A very basic explanation)
Sunlight contains every colour in the colour spectrum, we can't see them because all together they form what you might call "white" light. When this light reaches an object, lets say an orange, all wavelengths except for the one corresponding with orange (635~590nm) are absorbed. The orange wavelengths are reflected and our eyes perceive the orange as the colour orange. I won't get in to how our eyes do that, it's not important in this topic.

So if you were to take away that light source, theoretically the orange would be colourless, colour can't exist. If you were able to somehow see the orange without the presence of light (impossible), what would you see? You wouldn't be standing next to an orange coloured orange in a dark room, but a colourless orange.

It's a bit hard to explain (I didn't do it very well) but I find it fascinating to think about. What do you think?

take away the light an there would be no orange,Plants trees gress ect need sunlight to grow .Although they only use a certain spectrum of that light as energy to grow.They utilise quantom phycics to collect the photons they require.The fact that photons can travell many differnt pathways at the same time .Thus plants ensure they always collect the spectrum of light it requires to grow.

reply to post by Itisnowagain


If I remember right from Psych 101 or whatever it was called, we dream in black and white, then add color when we remember the dream

Originally posted by Itisnowagain
How about when there is no physical sun present?
When you are dreaming there is no physical sun but there is colour.

Dreams are fabrications of the mind. They don't follow the laws of physics and light.

Originally posted by ecossiepossie
take away the light an there would be no orange,Plants trees gress ect need sunlight to grow .Although they only use a certain spectrum of that light as energy to grow.They utilise quantom phycics to collect the photons they require.The fact that photons can travell many differnt pathways at the same time .Thus plants ensure they always collect the spectrum of light it requires to grow.

You completely missed the point. I'm aware of that, I'm talking about taking light away for a short period of time.