2006-12-26 23:35:11 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Does it matter? what you see is what you get. how do you know the colours you see are the same as anyone else See's?
2006-12-26 23:39:01 · answer #1 · answered by Max 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The visible spectrum has many more than 7 colors. Each individual wavelength from say 400nm to about 900nm is a color. The change from one wavelength to the next is too small for the eye to detect.
If you ask what the world looks like in the dark, you have to qualify whether you mean no visible light, or no light of any kind. There is still UV light and infrared light present. The world looks very different in these lights. Also, the world is at a finite temperature, that means it gives off radiation or light on its own as all bodies above absolute zero do. This light is typically in the infrared also. Since our eyes are not sensitive to this type of radiation, its hard to describe what it would look like. After all, how do you describe a color to a blind man?
2006-12-27 12:06:37 · answer #2 · answered by ZeedoT 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The spectrum is infinite, rather than having seven colours. How we see it depends on the structure of our retina. How it looks is completely subjective, an insect can often see into the uv spectrum, having a totally different view of things to us, as do people with colour-blindness!
The visible spectrum has an infinite number of hues, the wave function isn't so easily quantifiable as to say there are seven colours!
2006-12-27 07:42:22 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
What is darkness for you, how would you define it?
Light is a mixture of waves, and each species has a special range of visibility. For mankind ultra violet and infra red are beyond visibility. And even among mankind not everybody has the same kind of visibility (colour blindness).
Every thing has the colour it rejects out of of the light spectrum. If it absorbs all colours, it appears black. And if there was no sun and no light at all, that could be rejected, earth would really be dark.
2006-12-27 07:46:58 · answer #4 · answered by corleone 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your statement is misleading and limiting.
Visible Light is a very small section of the total frequency activity shown on the Angstrom Scale.
Lots of frequencies outside of visible light can be observed with optical aids.
The 7 Colours you refer to are really millions in number and that is without changing their Hues or Temperature.
That amount reflected by a material when receiving sunlight will vary yet again with colour temperature.
Colour is a full and interesting subject. Get a book on it.
2006-12-31 03:48:40 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
ok, so we cant see UV or IR, animals can. but just like old fashioned film, it can only see five stops, or a predetermined range say from 4 to 9, minus 4 or plus 9 it isnt recorded, its either too bright or too dark. and our eyes aare similar, in that they are designed to see what is the visible spectrum. would you trade a dogs black and white vision with greater accruity for yours? our world is made up of many colours... and as im a photographer, i like seeing it the way i do... and if i want to see it any other way, i just dial in some filters.... purple grass and orange skies... s'too much like a bad acid trip...
2006-12-27 10:09:34 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course it isn't dark!
There is a vast range of energy in the universe, at various points in the spectrum.
We can only SEE the range as seen in the rainbow, that's due to the limitations of our eyes. We can feel infra red, as heat, but that's it.
Budgies and other birds can see ultra violet it would seem. In UV, Budgie's legs glow, as does that little spot on their face. Remarkable, isn't it?.
2006-12-27 08:25:41 · answer #7 · answered by efes_haze 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well actually there are only 3 different colour receptors in a normal human eye, and when the light level falls sufficiently low, we can only see in shades of black and white.
but is the world dark? hardly! it is perfectly awash with electromagnetic radiation of almost every conceivable frequency! point your UV or infra-red or X-ray or whatever camera in virtually any direction you like and only wonders will you behold.
2006-12-27 15:35:12 · answer #8 · answered by waif 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We see using 3 colours although there are an infinite number of wavelengths and infinite number of ways of combining them into colours.
The R,O,Y,G,B,I,V is just an arbritrary naming of some of the combinations of colours that our eyes can see.
2006-12-27 17:01:47 · answer #9 · answered by m.paley 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I know that there are certain filming techniques/cameras that can help use imagine or even see these other spectrums.
2006-12-27 10:28:23 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋