[Prodigy9]

Here's something to think about:

Color isn't intrinsic to anything. Nothing you see is an actual color. Color is just an interpretation that happens in the brain.
Take for example...some people 'feel' color, or 'smell' sounds. It's called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

So...the real question you should be asking is if color exists at all. What happens if you could experience all of the extended electromagnetic waves as color? Or what if we could "see" heat, in the way that snakes do.

What if other people go thru their whole lives seeing "red", when it's really what you see as "blue"?

...Something to think about.

I partly agree with what you're saying. Light color is based on wavelengths of EM radiation, of which we can see only a small range. So it's not totally arbitrary--if I see light at 400 nm, and you see light at 400 nm, then we're seeing the same thing.

Of course, this still doesn't resolve the issue of whether our brains interpret things differently... if light that my brain interprets as blue might be interpreted by your brain as what I would call red. And of course, any attempt to figure this out by describing colors to each other wouldn't work either--if I describe "blue" as being "the color of the sky during daylight hours," you will certainly agree with me, but perhaps only because in your brain, "the color of the sky during daylight hours" is what I would call red.

Interesting stuff. Exit question: does this also apply to black, the absence of color/light?

[aguy130]

@alex

I know there have been studies done to detect this (a variant color blindness tests possibly), but what if every person saw the colors as a totally different colors. Like someone might see "red" as "blue", or "orange" as "green". Since, in society, you are taught the colors by associating the color name with how they perceive it. Nobody would be able to disprove it easily, for if asked what a certain color was, you would see it differently than any given person. But to you, that color name would be the same. It would require a stron variation of colorblondness tests, as I mentioned earlier. I cannot even fathom how much effort would be required to produce such a test.

[SilsuCrow]

InB4 The Colour of Magic.

[Prodigy9]

InB4 The Colour of Magic.

More like the magic of color, eh?

[alexrybicki]

Heres another interesting thing to think about: http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=3106

Because color (specific wavelengths of light) is only a result of the way light interacts and reflects away from objects, it's possible to turn any surface into another color, simply by modifying physically the wavelength that is reflected.
It's not really well explained in the article above, but my understanding is that they use the laser to physically cut groves into the surface of the medal to such a small size that light photons are physically forced into resonating at that specific wavelength. The block of aluminum is still aluminum colored (metallic grey), but it only appears blue for example because the size of the groove matches that of the proper wavelength.

[vsniney]

I think they call that paint.

[Prodigy9]

I think they call that paint.

It's sounds a bit different than that. When you paint a blue object red, you're taking a substance that reflects blue light and covering it with a different substance that reflects red light. As I understand it, this process would be analogous to carving a blue object with a small knife, and then the same object becomes red.

[alexrybicki]

I think they call that paint.

It's sounds a bit different than that. When you paint a blue object red, you're taking a substance that reflects blue light and covering it with a different substance that reflects red light. As I understand it, this process would be analogous to carving a blue object with a small knife, and then the same object becomes red.

Exactly.

[CirJohn]

I declare this thread a waste of 1 internet.

[FlannyFlan]

Here's something to think about:

Color isn't intrinsic to anything. Nothing you see is an actual color. Color is just an interpretation that happens in the brain.
Take for example...some people 'feel' color, or 'smell' sounds. It's called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

So...the real question you should be asking is if color exists at all. What happens if you could experience all of the extended electromagnetic waves as color? Or what if we could "see" heat, in the way that snakes do.

What if other people go thru their whole lives seeing "red", when it's really what you see as "blue"?

...Something to think about.

I partly agree with what you're saying. Light color is based on wavelengths of EM radiation, of which we can see only a small range. So it's not totally arbitrary--if I see light at 400 nm, and you see light at 400 nm, then we're seeing the same thing.

Of course, this still doesn't resolve the issue of whether our brains interpret things differently... if light that my brain interprets as blue might be interpreted by your brain as what I would call red. And of course, any attempt to figure this out by describing colors to each other wouldn't work either--if I describe "blue" as being "the color of the sky during daylight hours," you will certainly agree with me, but perhaps only because in your brain, "the color of the sky during daylight hours" is what I would call red.

Interesting stuff. Exit question: does this also apply to black, the absence of color/light?

I thought the same theing about us perceiving colors differently... I told my mom and shes like.. Wheres the pot...