Why do we observe colours for different objects ?

December 20, 2016 4:53pm CST
We see the world around us .. So very colourful and beautiful. Tree leaves are green , roses are red, the sky is blue, my face is black (no racism intended :p ) and many many more colours all around us. But what actually causes these objects to be the colour they are ? Is it because the object has the colour inside it ? The answer is NO ! Objects are not coloured inside, infact they are not coloured at all. I am pretty sure that during the 6th or 7th grade every one is taught that 'When a glass prism is placed in front of sunlight it splits into 7 colours (VIBGYOR)'. So this means white light has 7 colours inside it. That means white is actually not a real colour, it is just the mixture of all the 7 colours. So when white light is hit on any object it immediately absorbs all the colours in white light except the colour that it appears to be . Wait did I confuse you ... lol For ex. - Imagine you have a red shirt. Now you shine white light on it . What happens ? ... It appears sparkling red. What actually happens is that the shirt absorbs all the colours like V-Violet I-Indigo B- Blue G-Green Y-Yellow O-Orange but not Red. So the red in the white light hits the shirt, doesn't get absorbed and then reflects back everywhere. Some of this reflected light hits our eye and the colour appears Red. So it basically means that objects are not coloured, the light reflected by them appears to us as its colour. IKR Its too insane !! Food for thought - What one person perceives as a colour, may not be the same colour for any other person. For ex. - I might see a blue object as red but still call it blue cause blue is just a name given to a colour. I might see the sky red but call it blue cause thats the colour of the sky, but that red is wired in my mind as blue. Whereas someone else might see blue as yellow but still call it blue. Meaning two people are still calling the sky blue but they see it as red and yellow cause blue is just a name given to what you perceive as the colour of the sky. I dont know if you get what I mean, but it actually is a pretty deep thing to think about. The only way we can actually know if two people see the same colour is by creating a device which can project what the two people are seeing from their brains onto a computer screen !!
1 person likes this
2 responses
@jhechorain (1198)
• Susanville, California
21 Dec 16
Color is interesting for our world to make it lovely. Our brain is able to decipher it all and more! The thing is that any color you see on an object . . . the object is not that color but it is every color except the color which you see. The brain I guess filters out every color which is so that all you see is the colors which aren't? Funny.
21 Dec 16
@jhechorian Nature works in its own mysteries ways. But it is not the brain which filters out the rest of the colours, except the colour the object appears to be. It is the object itself which absorbs everything except the colour it appears. I guess you didnt read the article I wrote. Try reading it and tell me your view on the food for thought section ... :D
1 person likes this
• Susanville, California
21 Dec 16
I did read it but I just gave a different angle I have thought about that too though. If we're taught different somehow then how do we even know? But then again we get to name things so we can call yellow, orange, and still be correct.
1 person likes this
@sabtraversa (13014)
• Italy
20 Dec 16
Blue is like blue and red is like... red, you get me? Yeah, a device is definitely needed. I can't argue on science, so I have nothing to say about the rest.
20 Dec 16
@sabtraversa Haha xD Roses are red , Violets are blue Colours could appear different for us two . :P
1 person likes this