Poll: Is Invisible a Color?
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I have to agree with the dissenters. Depending on your definition of invisible.
A body releasing only infrared wavelengths would be invisible to humans but still electromagnetic radiation, so I guess it's a colour. On the other hand, something undetectable because of no interaction with photons would not have a colour, so no.
A body releasing only infrared wavelengths would be invisible to humans but still electromagnetic radiation, so I guess it's a colour. On the other hand, something undetectable because of no interaction with photons would not have a colour, so no.
Colour is a property of a visible object.
Invisible things are not visible.
Invisible is not a colour. QED.
Invisible things are not visible.
Invisible is not a colour. QED.
Invisible isn't a color. If it was a color, the invisible pink unicorn would have visible patches where she's pink.
Isn't black technically not a color? Consider space: Utter blackness, because there's no light for most of it, or at least the light from objects mind-bending distances away has yet to reach Earth.
Also, consider an object that is black - that is, said object is of a substance that it absorbs enough light that the human eye cannot detect any reflected light. If you cannot detect light, and light and color are one and the same, then you do not see any particular color. Instead, by calling the object "black" you're really just assigning a label to the object because, to us, color is crucial to describing just about anything.
If you ask certain people (myself included) to describe crappy generic modern FPSs, the phrase "brown and gray" is likely to come up very quickly. If you ask an audiophile to describe the sound quality of high-speed headphones, "colorful" or some variant of that adjective might come up.
Where the hell was I going with this?
Anyway, a substance with 100% clarity (invisible, or clear) has no color. Come to think of it, what substance has 100% clarity? Glass any thicker than a quarter-inch will mess with light so I don't think that quite counts. Absolutely clean air, maybe? Except the air we breathe is roughly the same as the air found in the atmosphere except thinner, and as we can see by the strange colors cast in the dawn and dusk, enough air can bend light, so it's the same case as glass...
On the other hand, maybe I'm being really really stupid and/or ignorant and there is indeed a substance with absolute clarity.
OOH! Contact lenses... maybe.
Also, consider an object that is black - that is, said object is of a substance that it absorbs enough light that the human eye cannot detect any reflected light. If you cannot detect light, and light and color are one and the same, then you do not see any particular color. Instead, by calling the object "black" you're really just assigning a label to the object because, to us, color is crucial to describing just about anything.
If you ask certain people (myself included) to describe crappy generic modern FPSs, the phrase "brown and gray" is likely to come up very quickly. If you ask an audiophile to describe the sound quality of high-speed headphones, "colorful" or some variant of that adjective might come up.
Where the hell was I going with this?
Anyway, a substance with 100% clarity (invisible, or clear) has no color. Come to think of it, what substance has 100% clarity? Glass any thicker than a quarter-inch will mess with light so I don't think that quite counts. Absolutely clean air, maybe? Except the air we breathe is roughly the same as the air found in the atmosphere except thinner, and as we can see by the strange colors cast in the dawn and dusk, enough air can bend light, so it's the same case as glass...
On the other hand, maybe I'm being really really stupid and/or ignorant and there is indeed a substance with absolute clarity.
OOH! Contact lenses... maybe.