Does color change when light changes?

Question

I heard somewhere that color actually changes depending on light conditions, since all color is is how light is reflected or something like that. So if you were wearing a red shirt in a pitch dark room, your shirt would actually be black at that time. Is this true? I need scientific proof too!

Answer 1

Color is dependent on how the receptors in your eyes recieve light wavelengths. You might be weairing a bright yellow shirt, but in the absence of light your eyes won't be able to detect the wavelength frequency of the color yellow.

Realistically, your eyes are perceptive enough that even in diminshing light conditions they can usually detect one color from another.

However, external conditions can also influence perception of color. For example, through much of the day, sunlight is diffused thought the atmosphere (an effect called diffuse sky radiation - see the wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffuse_sky_radiation at a wavelength we visually interpret as the color "blue" - hence, our idea of a "blue" sky). But in different atmospheric conditions (sometimes occuring as the Earth rotates away from the sun at the end of our "day") the sky can appear as orange or reddish in color. This is because blue light wavelengths are scattered out and away from the Earthbound visible line of sight, leaving the orange and reddish wavelengths visible.

In that respect, light conditions do influence color perception, though perhaps not in the way you might have thought.

Answer 2

Need scientific proof? Then you need to perform an experiment yourself.

This is not so difficult to do. Get a flashlight and some tinted translucent stuff. Shine the flashlight on something with and without the translucent stuff in front of it. To figure out what color of light you are using, shine the screened and unscreened light on a sheet of white paper. Then use your variously-colored light on something like your red t-shirt (in an otherwise darkened room). Describe what you see.

Answer 3

This is true.

A shirt which appears red in broad daylight is because it absorbs all wavelengths of white light(VIBGYOR) except red which it reflects back.

When the same shirt is viewed in a closed room which is illuminated by blue light( or green light or any other light save red), it would appear black because it absorbs blue light( or green light as the case may be) and does not reflect any wavelength.

A red shirt in a room illuminated by red light would still appear red as it reflects red light.

A red shirt in a dark room would appear dark because there is no visible wavelength whatsoever to reflect ( or absorb)!!

Answer 4

well i dont know about that, i think its more of a persons perception but if you want to do a test go to walkmart or home depot and get a few of those color papers, the kind with the colors of paint on them, grab a bunhc of different ones, than look at them in the sunlight, than go inside and look at them with a flashlight, than look at them with your houselights, the color will appear to be different dpending on the angle and brightness of the light

Answer 5

Yes it's true...

Because the shirt would absorb all color, and reflect back the color red.. that is why we see red. Black means all color is being absorbed.. white means all color is being reflected back

Answer 6

It's all in you mind, Colors don't change, Your perception of them does.

Answer 7

the colour of your iris relies upon on the quantity of pigment recent on your eye. to illustrate, green eyes have a great variety of yellow and a few brown, making them take place eco-friendly. Blue eyes have somewhat yellow and little to no brown, making them take place blue. gray eyes take place gray once you think approximately that they've have been given somewhat yellow and no brown in them. Brown eyes look brown with the aid of fact a variety of of the attention is composed of the brown shade. Brown is without doubt one among the main usual, blue is 2d, and eco-friendly is rarest.

Answer 8

absolutely. if the spectrum of light is different, than the colors that an object reflects will be different. oh, and in the absence of light, all objects are black.