Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

kjusewiczh's picture

What Color is That?

I have always found the concept of seeing color very interesting. The fact that all we see are wavelengths and we put the color to them in our brains is yet another example of the amazing nature of our brains. And even with all the color we can see, there are even more wavelengths that are beyond our ability to see. Just think of all the things we could see if we were able to detect other wavelengths, like UV light. Color is all really just a construct of our brain. There is no such thing as orange light. The combinations of different wavelengths create a signal that our brain interprets as orange. The shear amount of signals that our brain is able to interpret as color is mind-boggling; every color, every shade of color is a different signal. But what I find most interesting is the room for difference that exists between all of our brains. What I see as purple, my biology teacher saw as blue. What one of my friends from highschool saw as brown, I saw as salmon. What is the cause of this divergence and does it really even matter that it exists? We can all still exist together and we can all function. Do we need exact colors, or do we just need to get the general idea? Maybe we all see differenty anyways. Maybe, my green is not the same as your green, but the fact that we can both recognize that it is green is what allows us to communicate about color. Color may be just as personal as our feelings, but also common enough that we can communicate about it. It is an interesting problem, that also brings in the question of color-blindness. But in the end does it really matter anymore? Our world is full of color, and full of ways to get around needing to see color. Everything is full of recognizable signs that need no color to see observe what everyone else is. An example is light signals. The need for color is no longer, it is luxury or brains afford us. So I guess it really doesn't matter any more if we see different colors; at this point its just an interesting question, something to think about.

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
8 + 6 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.