Are white and black considered colors?

[FatBoyXPC]

I see the mistake I made here. Now this has raised questions about why things are taught certain ways in the education system I grew up with.

 

[Stefan]

I went ahead and submitted the question "Scientifically speaking, is black a color?"

Is it visible somewhere already?

I suspect you'll get a mixture of contradicting answers, just like this previous time it was asked:
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen99/gen99457.htm
(or they'll just refer you to that)

 

[FatBoyXPC]

Not that I know of, it didn't give me a link after clicking submit, and it also didn't email me a link. I looked for an article like that, but I guess I didn't put the right phrase into the search. Maybe I did see it though, because the second post describing color as a "human sensation" seems really familiar.

 

[Drake]

Hmm black is made by absorbing all other color, and white is made y reflecting all colors. I would say no, but there is so much people that say color even if its not. But no its not an color.

 

[bluedasher]

I belive black and white are colors. But why is it called "colorblind" when you still can see black and white?

Because you can't see the real colors.

 

[JL58]

Which brings us to the concept of "real" colo(u)rs.
In my opinion there is no such thing. Colors are fabricated by our response to wavelengths, filtered by our eyes pigments and integrated by our brain. They vary tremendously from one human being to the other, with "color blindness" as extreme cases. These pigments were developed over the years to respond differently and only to the energy wavelengths in a very narrow band, the one that can traverse water, likely because life comes from there and no further discrimination of light was needed at the time (interesting evolution leftovers). As such colors are only a partial perception of light. The absence of energy in the narrow visible spectrum does not mean there is no perception. Hence I would characterize black and white as perceptions from my eyes and call them "colors".

Another thing: many talk only about reflected light. To be accurate, we are sensitive to emitted light in the visible spectrum, not just the reflected light. A body will emit a mix of light, part being through the reflection process, part from its own temperature (all of it in the case of a black body). Without black bodies there will be no light. For most of it the sun is a dark body. To a lesser extent, but still for its exact purpose a light bulb is used as a black body.

 

[Kirjava]

Hmm black is made by absorbing all other color, and white is made y reflecting all colors.

I don't think you know what colour is.

 

[Dene]

Please refer to the "criteria" bit of my sentence? Even still if we ask a scientist and (if) he gives us an opinion, that is still an opinion, not a fact. If he gives us a fact, we'll want some sort of citation from that as well. This seems like it would continue to go into a circle until we get to a universally accepted definition of terms. Is a dictionary not just that?

Wasn't it decided that there is no "fact" of this matter, but only different answers depending on the definition given?

 

[gavnasty]

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

Go buy every color of paint and mix them.

 

[aronpm]

So, as you might know, everything is made of atoms, which are made of protons, electrons and neutrons. Now we only care about electrons.

Hell no! I care about protons and neutrons. I can't have an atom without protons.

"track"--orbit
"core"--nucleus
''induce"--excite

"Orbit"? What are you talking about? Electrons don't orbit the nucleus.

 

[Whyusosrs?]

@90% of this thread:

 

[Ashmnafa]

********.

Oh how I wish I could tell my teachers that when they say we cannot use Wikipedia.

 

[maggotcuber]

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

your analogy makes no sense if you think about it.
so why is it that when you mix 2 non-colors you get a color? (ie. black + white = grey)
if you mix silence with static you still get static. the silence doesnt change the way the static is.

 

[FMC]

"Orbit"? What are you talking about? Electrons don't orbit the nucleus.

you may have to check Bohr Model

 

[Whyusosrs?]

you may have to check Bohr Model

define: orbit
the (usually elliptical) path described by one celestial body in its revolution about another; "he plotted the orbit of the moon"


So by saying that electrons "orbit" your ambiguity was taken as the more well-know definition of orbit where it is an elliptical path. If you wanted to say that they "orbited" you would need to say that they travel in a circular orbit.

 

[hic0057]

I've been wondering that too. I guess the keyboards in the UK and Australia (and some places in Europe) are just poorly manufactured.

Don't you mean USA not Aussie, UK and others.
In Science I've just done a section on Light and Colour and I've probably learnt more about black and white now then those classes.

We also need a poll to see who believe in whether black or white are colours or not

 

[aronpm]

you may have to check Bohr Model

Did you even read that article? From the article you just linked:

The Bohr model is a primitive model of the hydrogen atom. As a theory, it can be derived as a first-order approximation of the hydrogen atom using the broader and much more accurate quantum mechanics, and thus may be considered to be an obsolete scientific theory.

 

[FMC]

Did you even read that article? From the article you just linked:

first of all,why do you discuss the validity of bohr model here? i know that electrons donot orbit the nucleus like planets and bohr model is not a successful theory,
secondly i just suggested a better word for "track" and that should not imply that electrons actually orbit nucleus.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

 

[FatBoyXPC]

Stefan, I received an email back. Nathan Unter (who is on this list of expert scientists) said "No. It is the absence of light." Unfortunately I still don't see a public link for this.

Edit:

I didn't realize you had double posted earlier and included a link to the Rochester Institute of Technology. I'd really like for them to include where that definition can be found. Either way, that is some obvious debate about it even in the science realm of things.

 

[Stefan]

Oh how I wish I could tell my teachers that when they say we cannot use Wikipedia.

I'm pretty sure they do let you use Wikipedia. Just not as a reference. But you can still learn a lot there, and get lots of references there. It is a very useful tool. And anything you write that requires a citation for your teacher probably requires and has a citation on wikipedia as well.

In Science I've just done a section on Light and Colour and I've probably learnt more about black and white now then those classes.

That's cause we obsess about details that your school doesn't have time for

Stefan, I received an email back. Nathan Unter (who is on this list of expert scientists) said "No. It is the absence of light."

Note he didn't say "It is the absence of color". At best, that's an incomplete answer. He'd need to define what color and light are and how they relate to each other. Pretty pathetic if that was his whole answer.

Anyway, as I hope is clear now, different people have different opinions about this, even scientists. And I stand by my earlier assertion that the only wrong opinion is the opinion that one's own color-opinion is the sole correct one and that different color-opinions are wrong.