colors and eyes?

Question

if everyone is looking at the same color, does it look to be the same color through every persons eyes? like if Jimbo was looking at Blue, could it look Red to me?

I know that second answer, im just talkin about the way it just looks

i would be great if my prizm looked blue instead red however, but grey would suck

Answer 1

Colour is very subjective - most of it is down to how the brain processes visual information (which is not simple sampling of three colour inputs as this would lead to colours changing dramatically as light conditions changed - this does not happen).

In fact, I see slightly different colours in my right and left eyes (though my optician says this is odd).

Some people actually hear musical sounds when they see colours - this is called synesthesia.

Answer 2

To truly answer this question, you first have to understand what color is. Ever held a prism up to the sun and seen the rainbow that is projected from the other side? What we perceive as "white" light is actually a combination of the entire electromagnetic spectrum between about 400 and 700 nanometers of wavelength. When this light passes through a prism, the light is "bent" and forced to separate into the individual colors that actually make up the "white" light.
At the base level, the majority of the population "sees" color the same. The healthy human eye contains a light sensitive retina made up of rod and cone cells. While rod cells discern motion and distinguish between light and dark, it is the cone cells that separate and interpret color. There are three types of cone cells: short-wave, medium-wave and long-wave. The short-wave (around 700nanometers) is red sensitive, the medium-wave is green sensitive and the long-wave (up around 400nm) is blue sensitive.
With just these three color-sensitivity ranges, the human eye is able to record, interpret and distinguish between millions of colors in the visible spectrum.
Unless a person has the medical condition known as poor color discrimination, then blue is blue, red is red, etc. Color "blindness" is actually a misnomer. It is very rare to find someone who is truly color-blind. Or in other words, can only see in shades of gray. However, age, eye fatigue, poor color memory and other physiological differences inherent in the human body from person to person can cause differences in how color is actually communicated to each other.
Hope this information answers your question. I work in the printing industry so color is my bread and butter. :o)

***note to epidavros below:
It's not that color perception is as simple as the input through only three receptors. Rather, it is the way these three receptors work in unison and how the brain interprets the data that defines the colors we see.
Also, color actually DOES change dramatically when lighting conditions change. Color is, in fact, wholely dependant upon the temperature of the light under which it is viewed. This is why your car appears to be bright red in the sun but a very dark, blood-red or even darker color as the light disappears. In the printing industry, we are 100% standardized in our color-viewing techniques. We use 5,500Kelvin lighting booths to view color which is the industry standard and is also the equivalent of noontime light on a normal, sunny day. Unfortunately, we often have customers who complain about their color because they are viewing their piece under their fluorescent office lights or tungsten desk lamps.
To best explain color it is important to understand that nothing actually has an inherent color. Rather, what we see as color is simply that portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that an object reflects back to us. A red car absorbs much of the light falling on it and reflects back those wavelengths which fall in the "redder" part of the spectrum; thus giving us the perception of a red color.
There is actually far, far more detail that I could go into regarding what color is and how it works, but it is very advanced theory and really isn't necessary to go into here. I've been fortunate in my career because of what I do to have extensive training in color theory.

Answer 3

Our eyes contain sensors which respond to different wavelengths of light.

The human visual system works quickly to respond to all the potential wavelength information. It efficiently breaks down the visiblespectrum into the three primary regions of red, green, and blue.

The eye contains three types of cone receptors. Each receptor is sensitive to about one third of the visible spectrum. These are red light, green light, and blue light.

The color the eyes see in an object depends on how much red, green and blue light is reflected to the eye. Black is perceived when no light is reflected to the eye. When red, green, and blue lights are reflected to the eye in equal amounts, then white is perceived.

What you see is not always what's there! Many factors can affect our perception of color. For example, about 10% of all men are color blind and about 1% of all women are color blind. A person who looks at color for a long period of time is going to experience retinal fatigue and the colors are not going to be perceived accurately any longer.

We need a standard specification system to know exactly what the color is.

The conditions in which color is viewed greatly affect the perception of color. For accurate viewing the light source and environment must be standardized.

People in the graphic arts industry, for example, avoid fluorescent and tungsten lighting, use a standard light source, and proof against a neutral gray surface.

Color images frequently contain hundreds of distinctly different colors. To reproduce such images on a color peripheral device would be impractical.

However, a very broad range of colors can be visually matched by a mixture of three "primary" lights. This allows colors to be reproduced on a display by a mixture of red, green, and blue lights or on a printer by a mixture of cyan, magenta and yellow inks or pigments.

The visual sensation of color is very subjective. Each person experiences the sensation of color differently because many variables influence our color perception. Even if we did all see color the same way, we would still interpret and describe it differently based upon our individual life experience. That is one of the reasons for the development of color communication standards and easy-to-use color measurement instruments.

Answer 4

Unless a person is color blind, everyone sees color in the same way. Color is perceived in the cones of our retinas, and a person who is color blind (should be called color deficient) sees colors differently than we do because of a problem in the cones.

Answer 5

I wonder that too.