Is black a colour or merely the absence of light?

Answer 1

I hold in my hand an Absence Of Light colored Crayola Crayon.

Answer 2

When a surface that does not have any specific colour [red,blue,green] absorbs all colour and reflects none then the surface would be black.

To the point-black [normally] is the absence of light .
Artitians consider black as a colour.

Answer 3

Hey, actually light' spectrum consist of 7 colours i.e. VIBGYOR, and whenever a substance absorb all the seven colours and does not reflect any of the colours, then we get to see black colour.
I think u can decide now if it is colour or merely the absence of light.

Answer 4

Color is a complicated concept because it involves how our brain reacts to light. There are several scientific models for color. Whether or not black is a color depends on what model you use.


For example, in one model (HSV), colors are classified by hue, saturation, and brightness. In this scheme black is just a color whose brightness is 0. If the hue was red, the saturation medium, and the brightness .00001, it would look black, but be called red. In this model, you can smoothly make red darker, until it becomes black. So how could you say black isn't a color?

But in the red, green, blue model (RGB) one can make an argument it isn't.

If you prefer to drop science because it can answer the question both ways, and just talk about the meaning of a word, the Oxford dictionary is the ultimate authority, and according to it, black is a color. Or colour :-).

More about the different models for color here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_space

Has tons of links to other sites about color, also.

Answer 5

Black is when all the light waves in the color spectrum are absorbed and none our reflected to our eyes. White is the opposite. Try putting a piece of each black and white paper in direct sunlight. After a few minutes the black will be hotter than the white because it absorbs the light!

Answer 6

In light waves it depends on the wavelength that passes through the material. This is the color we see if the waves are in the visible light of the Electromagnetic Spectrum. It also depends of which wavelengths are reflected. If no visible light waves occur it is black. A Black Hole is a different concept but has the same outcome. The escape velocity is greater than the speed of light therefore no light is visible.

Answer 7

All colours are actually the absorption of light waves.
The colour depends on the atoms the material is mad of.
Black is the absorption of all the visible wave lengths of light. (So black is not a mix of all the colours.)
Photon’s (light) are energy and travel in deferent wave lengths.
As the photons collide with Electrons some of the photons get absorbed by the electrons.
It all dependents on how far the electron is from the nucleus.

Answer 8

Generally black is considered as the mixture of all the colours. If you mix all the colours together, the colour black forms.
We humans who can identify colour, think / it looks to us as if that, where there is no light, there is only one colour and that is black.
Because we are able to differentiate between colours, we say that the place where there is light, that place is black in colour.

Answer 9

Black is not a color. It is absence of light

Answer 10

Light and color are closely linked when we arent talking about digital signals. The color of an object is determined my the spectrum of light it reflects. If objects scatter all wavelengths, they appear white. If they absorb all wavelengths, they appear black.

In a computer, white created with the HEX FFFFFF - there is no higher value. Black is HEX 000000 - there is no lower value. One could then argue that white is all colors and black is the absence of all color.