Colours.
I haven't written a blog for a while, purely due to lack of inspiration as lately my days have been spent sitting here on this computer talking to you all on GSB and making icons. However, about a half hour ago I got this idea whilst drying up after dinner. It's about darkness and colours.
Why do colours need light to make them work? Why is it when we turn off the lights at night our world is transformed into blue, black and grey? I look at my bedsheets, I know that in daylight they are red. But at night I cannot differentiate the red from the blue of my walls. It's just a darker shade of grey from the black of my doona cover.
Why would that be? When the light goes away the colours disappear too. Yet turn on a light and they're back again in an instant.
I don't know what I'm getting at in this blog. And I'm sure there is a scientific explanation for it, just like why the sky is blue. But it's just weird to actually sit down and think about it. It's something that is overlooked every night time.
Maybe there is colour and we just don't see it because our eyes don't do operate well in the dark. Maybe nocturnal animals can see colours when it's dark. Maybe animals with much better eyesight than us humans can see the colours.
Why do colours need light to make them work? Why is it when we turn off the lights at night our world is transformed into blue, black and grey? I look at my bedsheets, I know that in daylight they are red. But at night I cannot differentiate the red from the blue of my walls. It's just a darker shade of grey from the black of my doona cover.
Why would that be? When the light goes away the colours disappear too. Yet turn on a light and they're back again in an instant.
I don't know what I'm getting at in this blog. And I'm sure there is a scientific explanation for it, just like why the sky is blue. But it's just weird to actually sit down and think about it. It's something that is overlooked every night time.
Maybe there is colour and we just don't see it because our eyes don't do operate well in the dark. Maybe nocturnal animals can see colours when it's dark. Maybe animals with much better eyesight than us humans can see the colours.
This is where my love of physics somes in handy.
Loads of people have already written about the reflection of light, so I'll talk about other stuff.
OK, the sky is blue. Why? Because of light refraction as it hits our atmosphere after travelling millions of miles from the Sun. These light rays disperse when then come into contact with our atmosphere because it is more dense than space, duh, similar to how a prism refracts light and we see a rainbow in Year 7 science classes. Our Earth is positions as such that we see blue as the colour of the sky and of the light being refrancted. This is also why, during sunset, the sun is at a different angle so the refracted light that hits the Earth is red and orange and yellow and violet.
The colour green never shows in the sky because green has the least amount of energy. This is why green cars are never produced and sold. Also, if you look very closely at a cathode ray TV monitor or computer monitor (Not a flat screen one.) with a magnifying glass, you will see for each pixel there are four dot to make it up. These light up as red, green, or blue, the primary colours of light. Since green has the least amount of energy there are two dots of green and one for red and blue.
The ocean is blue because it reflects the sky.
Nocturnal animals have more rods than cones in the retinas of their eyes, so when it is dark, instead of seeing colour, they seen more contranst between light and dark areas, light a night vision camera, except in black and white. However, there are animals that probably see 'more colours' than we can see because our cone cells detect red, green, and blue, but a few other animal's cone cells can see 'other colours' because they have more cone cells which can see more colours that humans can't ever think, imagine, or view. I think lobsters are one of these animals, but I'm not to sure, I can't remember.
Dogs are not entirely colour blind, but red-green colour blind so their blue cone cells do not work. They only see in red or green, which sometimes happens to people who mistreat their eyes.
Any more information about colours, sight, pysics, light, needed, just PM me.
Anji, April 25th, 2007 at 07:47:21am
Colours are pretty.
The darkness is stealing our colours.
D:
germma margaret!, April 24th, 2007 at 10:10:03pm
*nods*
I know. It's still weird to think about though.
vonny, April 23rd, 2007 at 11:24:34pm
Kurtni's right. It's basically light is made up of 7 different coloured lights and different objects reflect and absorb the different colours. As for the sky being blue I think its because our atmosphere is a big blue filter because the sky isn't blue on evry planet.
Revol, April 23rd, 2007 at 04:38:18pm
Because, all color is, is the way that different objects reflect and absorb waves, specifically visible ligh waves. Black objects absorb almost all heat and light waves, makeing them dark. White objects reflect everything. In the dark, everything appears to be darker because there is little to no light.
Kurtni, April 23rd, 2007 at 07:49:05am
lol, i agree.
Vegemite, April 23rd, 2007 at 06:29:36am
Colours = Light
vonny, April 23rd, 2007 at 06:07:15am
Maybe that's why the saying is
'You can only see the world in black and white unless you paint it with colours'
germma margaret!, April 23rd, 2007 at 06:02:56am
mmgood point...
well made.
I try not to think about things liek that because i get confused, but you're right.. darkness tales colour away aswell.
But it think it is just because of out eyes and stuff and there probly is a scientific explanation.
waiting_a_long_time, April 23rd, 2007 at 05:33:37am