We Cant "See" Magenta

[GST_Nemisis]

found this on the net today, i found it very intresting. if you like optical illusion check this out too.

its all about how we see colours and at the bottom a person has posted an intresting comment about how our brains see colours not our eyes. anyways its a good read:


http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/sc...colour_spectrum_magenta_complimentary_bizarre

 

[YaDonno]

interesting, still i don't get it

 

[brad.dude03]

What's not to get? When the brain gets red and violet wavelengths at the same time, it chooses to invent a new colour, and this colour is magenta. Magenta doesn't have a wavelength, is not in the spectrum of light and is therefor not a colour. Very facinating stuff. Everyone who likes pink can burn, because it's not a real colour

 

[YaDonno]

i get all that, but what i didn't get is, why doesn't pink exist? you know that you see it everywhere but it doesn't exist? and why did the bain choose option B? it could go for A and show green instead, right? i mean, if the brain chooses to mix colours all the time instead of choosing a wavelength between the two original colours, then more colours would exist, right? why is pink an exception? that's my point

 

[brad.dude03]

No, when it mixes other 2 wavelengths thats when you get colours like orange, yellow, purple etc, but not pink. Notice pink is not in the rainbow... and the reason we "see" it everywhere is because our brain is creating that colour. It's just like all the other colours. They don't exist, but we see them everywhere, all colours are are wavelengths interpreted by our brains to spit out what we are used to seeing. Pink is the result of an anamoly, pink happens when the shortest wavelength and the longest wavelength get put together. To put it simply, pink doesn't exist because it is not part of the visible spectrum of colour.

 

[GST_Nemisis]

well your eyes have the three cone cell types, blue,red and green, these can only take in certain wave lengths for each type. when you get a wavelength that is registered by both the red and the blue, the brain puts these two colours together to make purple, so the purple wavelength is whatever. And the same usually goes for when you see two wavelenths of solid colour, so if you see a purple beam of light, the brain makes up a purple colour. however in this case, and with most cases, the colour also has its own wavelength. Pink is the anomaly, because it has no wavelength, it only exists when you get two different wavelengths, this means you arent looking at pink, your looking at green and voilet. you brain makes up the colour because this is what it usually does.

if it makes it easier, tho it might make it harder, think of it like this, when you mix blue and yellow paint you get green, but really the blue and yellow still exist they havent magically changed into green they are just mixed. this is what happens here, you are looking at green and violet but you are seeing pink.

 

[brad.dude03]

Yes and to make it simple on the guy: the whole reason pink isn't a colour is because, unlike every other colour, it has no wavelength. Wavelengths hold the data that tells the brain what colour it is, but since pink has no wavelength, the brain generates a colour instead. This colour is pink.

 

[Durgon]

Im getting a matrix vibe. So in a nutshell pink isnt really pink...yet it still is..pink.

 

[brad.dude03]

Something like that... to put it simply, there are no such things as colour, just wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation that our brain interprets to make us see the colours that we are used to in every day life. Wrap your head around that one. To add further to this, pink does not have a wavelength, and it is a result of the longest wavelength (Red) and the shortest wavelength (purple) being sent to the brain at the same time. The brain should create a colour that has a wavelength that is in between the two... but there is no colour there, so it chooses to create a whole new colour, pink, that has no wavelength at all.

 

[YaDonno]

yeah, i get all that, but in that article, it says that the result colour of mixing, or let's say interpreting the wavelength of both red and violet should be green as it has a wavelength between them, but why does the brain ignore green and create a new colour instead? and in this case pink, which doesn't have a wavelength at all? it's all clear, but weird

 

[GST_Nemisis]

why???

why does your brain do anything? why does you brain think at all??

the reason for most of these questions is probably something to do with some sort of evolutionary advantage, but even then alot of things dont make sense to brain experts. your brain is very mysterious and we know hardly anything about it, it doesnt need a reason to do anything, it just does it.

 

[brad.dude03]

Yep, and when it does it, it does it so that it can kick ass. And it does.