buckwheat Loc: Clarkdale, AZ and Belen NM

My grandchildren and I were discussing esoteric things after dinner tonight, and my grandson all of a sudden said, "Color does not exist!" I reminded him that color can be measured by wavelengths and projected onto the rods and cones in our eyes. He claimed that color is only a perception defined by us and learned.
I was baffled because after all of my photography and art training, I could not conceive of what he was saying.
So I went to Google.
He's right!
There are many articles, but this actually covers the subject very clearly.
http://www.askamathematician.com/2012/06/q-do-colors-exist/

Darn kids!

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

This only proves two things to me.
(1) You've misinterpreted the article.
(2) There are stupid questions.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Yeah, right.
And eggs are bad, and taufo is good.
And Science still cannot create life.
Your Grandson is merely repeating the rhetoric the schools crammed into his developing brain.
All the flowers and plants on the Earth are really just Black & White.
And the computer you are using does not really exist. :hunf:

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

If it can be measured and quantified, it exists. What seems to be the problem? (Common Core?)

twindad Loc: SW Michigan, frolicking in the snow.

BigBear Loc: Northern CT

Common Core indeed !!

St3v3M Loc: 35,000 feet

These seem related:

The inexact science of color and emotion
http://blog.mingthein.com/2012/05/19/the-inexact-science-of-color-and-emotion
Chasing perfect color, and common myths about white balance
http://blog.mingthein.com/2012/05/21/chasing-perfect-color-and-common-myths-about-white-balance

MtnMan Loc: ID

Most such philosophy won't buy you a beer at your favorite bar. But it might be the kind of stuff you want to discuss after a few hours there.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Big Bear, how many here that do not presently teach have any idea what common core actually is?!
What, are they hung up on NCLB? ;-)
SS

idahoshooter Loc: Coeur d'Alene

There are several different events going on here, and this author while explaining some of the physics, muddles up whether colors "exist" by not clearly distinguishing different events.

By events I mean:
a) The event of the emission or reflection of light by an object;
b) the event of the absorption of that light by film, a detector, or the eye.
c) the event of perception by the brain.

These are entirely different events. And apparently some people get wound around the axle because perception is involved in SOME of it.

I would define "colors" by the wavelength of light. The "color" of an object typically being the peak amplitude of wavelengths of light given off (emitted or reflected) by the object.

Now how that is perceived is where that article gets itself lost.
How people (or animals) perceive those colors is up to the eye and the brain. Obviously some people have "color blindness" if they don't have all the different types of cones.



Its what I would mean by green (a wavelength definition), even if some people can't see it!

Then the whole discussion about the difficulty of making film reproduce what the eye see's is a whole different discussion, more appropriately related to "false color" images.

Finally, I certainly dispute that this human capability is "learned", and I didn't see that stated in the article.

Macronaut Loc: Redondo Beach,Ca.

Just to change direction slightly, which represents the presents of all colors?

Black or white?

Or, is this one just too easy?

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Presents from color?

ote=Flyextreme]Just to change direction slightly, which represents the presents of all colors?

Black or white?

Or, is this one just too easy?[/quote]

fuminous Loc: Luling, LA... for now...

DNA analysis suggests an interesting relationship between color vision and smell. Humans have thousands of genes related to sense of smell but many of them perform no function: they are dead genes. It is logical to presume these dead genes, once upon a time, served some purpose- probably enabling an olfactory function superior to what we have now. Many animals- with a very good sense of smell, have these genes- or genes of similar design- but the genes are active. These same animals do not, however, see color particularly well. That is, animals with poor or very limited color vision (one or two hues of muted color) generally have an excellent sense of smell.
Logic suggests that humans have traded some olfactory functionality for color acuity. Perhaps finding food is better accomplished via color discrimination than with sniffing the air for scent. So, it could be argued that, in a sense, color discrimination is a learned skill... others suggest it is an adaptation.

MW

The article is an awkward way of recognizing that visible light is only one fairly narrow band in the electromagnetic spectrum. The spectrum extends from arbitrarily long wave lengths (low frequency) to extremely short wave lengths (high frequencies). The same laws of physics apply to all. Humans have learned how to generate and manipulate these energies in several regions of the spectrum: Radio from ELF to microwave (including radar), IR, visible, UV, X-Ray, Gamma. They seem to be different phenomenon a because the way they interact with objects depends on the scale of the object and the wave length. For example ELF is such a long wave length that it just passes around most objects with no interaction - this makes it useful for communicating with submerged submarines on the other side of the planet. X-Rays waves are shorter than visible light which lets them slip between low density soft tissue molecules pretty well but are considerably blocked by bone which is more dense.

Visible light is is in a band that has a lot of interaction with objects that are most important to living creatures. It provides information about things we physically interact with to survive. The color bands provide additional information beyond what simple B&W would give - green is a band that leaves reflect a lot, ie food. I suspect that insects often see UV because it's shorter wave length gives them info about the smaller objects they need to interact with.

Color is as real or imaginary as radio, radar, infrared, X-rays and gamma radiation are real or imaginary, existent of non-exist.

amyinsparta Loc: White county, TN

"When the Higgs field of organized energy coalesced for an instant into the precursor of matter, then fell back to its normal energy state, the whole of quantum theory was demonstrated to be law, and matter will never be thought of as 'real' again."
"Matter has no separate existence without thought."

Rev. Ruth Miller, PHD.

"Matter can only exist in the presence of an observer."

physics professor Amit Goswanmi

Whatever you think, IS. If you doubt it, look around at your world and see what thought has created. If we want a better world, we have to bring it into existence through better thoughts, words, and actions. And that cannot include any thoughts that are the opposite of Love. Because, when you look around, what polarity do you see-negative or positive?

You think and act on negative thoughts, you get a negative world for yourself. You think and act positive thoughts and you get a positive world. When too many people think and act negatively, we get what we have today in the world.

We ARE what we think, and the world is a result of what we are thinking. We desperately need to start thinking and feeling positively-love- instead of dwelling constantly on judgments that are creating a very negative creation.

Our world is made through thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds. It can be made glorious or evil. It's our decision.