Are white and black considered colors?

[bluedasher]

Since there has been an on going debate about this overwhelming an existing thread I have taken it upon myself to create this thread to settle disputes going on pertaining to whether or not black and white are colors. If you have input please back it up with evidence. I do not want this thread to become a place for an argument I want quite the opposite. This thread is just for you guys to give your opinions on the subject and have a discussion about this. So, the big question...

Are black and white colors and if not should they be considered colors?

I personally believe that black is the absence of all colors in the spectrum and that white is the presence of all colors in the spectrum.

Please, leave your input.

 

[souljahsu]

Black isn't a color because it is the absence of all the light.

 

[Toad]

color: #000000;
color: #ffffff;

I'm a web designer, yes they are both colours.

Really: There is not a concrete definition of colour as it is treated so differently in different situations. Although "black" IS the absence of light, that does not mean it cannot be referred to as a "colour".

 

[vcuber13]

http://tinyurl.com/23uwu57

 

[RyanO]

Black isn't a color because it is the absence of all the light.

An absence of light does not necessitate an absence of color. This is similar to saying zero isn't a number.

 

[ColdFactor]

black is absence of light?

i can see black because my eyes detect the 'light'.

 

[bluedasher]

http://tinyurl.com/23uwu57

Well, from page two and on there has been quite a debate going on so many people don't think it is a simple as searching it on Google.

http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/s...ncle-Tyson-WCA-s-scrambling-orientation/page2

 

[FatBoyXPC]

Taken from the other thread:

Color:
1. the quality of an object or substance with respect to light reflected by the object [...]

Black:
1. absorbing light without reflecting any of the rays composing it.

By these definitions I would say reflecting no light (i.e. being black) counts as a possible way an object could reflect light (i.e. a color), just like how "zero" is a number, and "nobody" is a possible set of people.

In response to:

That's wikipedia, where anybody would edit that definition. By definition, black is not a color:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/color

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/black - though if you go all the way down to the 20th definition, color is used in the definition.

Now, if we compare 0 to black, then would white be compared to infinity? If so:

Though the definition of infinity has the word number, the definition of number suggests that infinity cannot be a number. It seems that zero can be considered a "sum" or a "total count," but something infinite could not be totaled.

qqwref: By definition I disagree, though I do see your point. This article though explains how zero is a number: http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/63315.html

 

[Stefan]

That's wikipedia, where anybody would edit that definition.

********.

By definition, black is not a color:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/color

First time that page mentions black: "achromatic colours such as white or black"

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/black - though if you go all the way down to the 20th definition, color is used in the definition.

"all the way down to the 20th definition"? You mean the very first noun definition?

 

[qqwref]

Now, if we compare 0 to black, then would white be compared to infinity?

Nope. It's not at all the same idea as infinity. White = reflecting all the light = yet another possible way an object can reflect light.


Since this is a new topic I feel I should quote this from the previous:

As long as most people would say "black" is an acceptable answer to the question "What color is this?", how can you say black isn't a color? The same applies to white.

 

[cmhardw]

Now, if we compare 0 to black, then would white be compared to infinity?

A more apt comparison may be the concept of probability. If black is 0, then white would be more like the number 1. This would assume that every color is represented somewhere on this continuum between 0 and 1.

 

[hic0057]

First thing I need to say is change the heading from color to colour.

Dictionary.reference;
Colour:the quality of an object or substance with respect to light reflected by the object, usually determined visually by measurement of hue, saturation, and brightness of the reflected light; saturation or chroma; hue.

Black is something that absorb all primary colours and White reflects all primary colours.

If someone says what colour cube do you have? 99% of cubers won't be able to answer that question technically.

 

[KYLOL]

First thing I need to say is keep the heading as color.

Dictionary.reference;

Color : The quality of an object or substance with respect to light reflected by the object, usually determined visually by measurement of hue, saturation, and brightness of the reflected light; saturation or chroma; hue.

Edit : I know people enjoy these debates, but it's pretty obvious white and black are colors. They say so in Harry Potter. Also, I think it is simpler to just call them colors and leave it alone.

 

[irontwig]

You have a pretty useless definition of the word "colour" if it doesn't contain white and black.
By the way: what's the probability that so many people in the same thread have a broken "u" key?

 

[Zubon]

Sure, black and white may have different physics than the other colors in the spectrum, but our eyes detect no light or a mixture of all colors and our brain gives these states labels we call color.

When you see no light or mixed light, your brain labels these as the colors black and white. When you see other frequencies, you brain labels them as other colors.

In the real world, black and white are for all practical purposes color. I think we can all agree that that is the general acceptance. When you buy paint, you can get black and white. So yes, they are colors just like the others. They just have a more interesting story behind them.

 

[FatBoyXPC]

********.

How so? At most, if it's a protected page, you submit a request for it. At that point an administrator can change it. So you can pull a technicality on "anybody" if it is a protected page, but the point is that it is a definition from a person, not an actual resource (such as a dictionary).

You mean the very first noun definition?

I don't see how this matters? Colors are referred to in adjective forms all the time.

The wikipedia article itself states that "in practice it can be considered a color" which suggests it is not actually a color (or it wouldn't be only in practice).

qqwref: Just because "most people" say it's a color, does not make it a color. Most people refer to clear as a color as well, but clear as (hopefully we can agree) is actually colorless. Yes, reflecting all light is a way to reflect light, but if you don't reflect any light, how can you consider that a way to reflect light? I see the purpose as a property or such, but we cannot say it reflects when it quite clear in the definition that it does not.

irontwig: There is a handful of words spelled differently in "American English" rather than just English. Favourite is another example of this, and ironically enough it comes up as being misspelled with my spell-checker.

 

[irontwig]

irontwig: There is a handful of words spelled differently in "American English" rather than just English. Favourite is another example of this, and ironically enough it comes up as being misspelled with my spell-checker.

Yikes, that's completely new to me.

 

[~Adam~]

I was taught in secondary school that black and white are not technically colours, but then again I was taught a lot of false stuff back then (for example the orbits of electrons).
They are clearly both colours and Chris makes an excellent point with regards to probability.
I have no idea why Fatboy would jump straight from black being 0 to white being ∞.
It seems logical until you think about it for about a nano second.

I prefer the colour vs color debate.
'American English' is English with a few words spelt differently and very little else.
Why bother changing anything at all?

 

[MTGjumper]

irontwig: There is a handful of words spelled differently in "American English" rather than just English. Favourite is another example of this, and ironically enough it comes up as being misspelled with my spell-checker.

My favourite colour is grey. I wonder if that made sense to Americans (For what it's worth it's actually orange.)

 

[Godmil]

Oh dear gawd, people like to complicate things.

Technically black and white aren't colours but it's convenient to call them such, end of story.

If you want a really good analogy jump to sound, black would be silence, white would be static (white noise). Colour is defined by the frequency of light, in the same way that a musical note is defined by the frequency of the sound wave... you don't listen to static and say "what note is that?" it's not a note, it's all frequencies jumbled up... just the same as white light.
For anyone saying "how can I see black then if there is no light?" - you're not seeing black you're seeing dark dark grey, cube's aren't really true black or white, it's just convenient to call them such.

:fp