If we could see ultraviolet and infrared...?

Question

...what color would we perceive it as?

Answer 1

If the present human visual spectrum were extended into the infrared, we would gain the benefit of 'night vision' goggles, and be able to visually detect heat signatures that our unaided eye cannot now detect. If we had to sacrifice any of our current visual spectrum to get it, it would usually be a net loss. I we had to sacrifice visual acuity (resolution), it would definitely be a net loss. God or evolution (you choose) makes wise choices.

Ultraviolet vision would probably be less useful.

Some animals have IR or UV vision. It is believed it helps improve their mating success or ability to find certain kinds of food.

If we had rod or cone cells sensitive in that range, we would perceive them the same way we perceive other colors.

Answer 2

We would perceive it as ultraviolet or infrared, or else we'd perceive it as a color we can already see.

Our eyes have three cone cells that have peak sensitivities at three different wavelengths, corresponding approximately to blue, green, and red. Our brains evolved to perceive different amounts of the three stimuli as different colors.

If we had a fourth type of cone cell that could see light with a wavelength smaller than 400 nanometers (i.e., ultraviolet), our brains would either perceive it as a pre-existing color (depending on how the cells stimulated the optic nerve), or else our brains would have evolved differently in the first place.

Answer 3

I really have no clue. We may just perceive it as red or violet. We might see it as something completely different. If we saw the infrared or the ultraviolet range, it would be much more difficult to see on Earth. Our eyes have adapted to see a particular range of light because it happens to be the most intense range of EM radiation in light from our own Sun. Yellow, which is easiest for the human eye to see, is the most common color of light in Sunlight. Personally, I think that is pretty cool.

Answer 4

That's a cool question and hard to answer since all the names for colors that we use are based on the visible spectrum. Violet is actually blue with some red in it so does that mean that it is actually on a continuum moving back towards red? So what is a good word for reddish purple? How about: u.v. looks aubergine. So infrared has to be a hot color, beyond red with a touch of heat. How about: IR looks caliente? (okay, thats not a color word but usually you associate it with red hot peppers).

Answer 5

There are no names for the colors we would see. We would have to invent them. Maybe we would call them ultraviolet and infrared