Quote Originally Posted by Rota View Post
Did you ever wonder what color things really are? We see a leaf as green, because chlorophyl reflects more green lightwaves than any other color. But what color is chlorophyl, really? What color reflects green light waves?

Is it as simple as saying that green objects, reflect green light? The photo negative color of green is magenta. Maybe leaves are actually magenta, and it repels green light waves, so we only perceive that leaves are green.

What would it look like if we could only perceive a different section of lightwaves the spectrum?
What if our "visual" spectrum of light was a section of the ultraviolet light waves, then what color is a leaf?
Quote Originally Posted by Rota View Post
Stars certainly have a color, and it's not from any light they may reflect. Stars emit light.

A red giant emits mostly red light waves. There is no light being reflected, it is the source of the light. There are blue stars, and orange stars, and even pink stars. Our sun is very yellow. So colors do exist, even without reflection.

If an object is green, and you take it into a sealed darkroom with absolutely no light, then it is not reflecting any light. You don't see the object anymore, due to the blinding nature of the utter darkness. But, that does not mean the object is no longer green, just because of the absence of light at a given moment.

It's my that understanding that objects have a color based on what pigments it has to absorb and reflect light. The light falls upon the object, the pigments that correspond to that light spectrum take in the light, and the reflected light is the color of the object.

I once worked at a semi-conductor wafer fabrication plant. The section of the plant that I worked in was the Photo area, called that because it was the area of the plant where light sensitive operations took place. Much like one of those developing rooms for photography, we had to use a different type of light so we wouldn't ruin the product. The light was very, very YELLOW, oy. Most operations in the entire fab required printed instructions, and the printer used yellow copy paper. However, in the photo section of the plant, the yellow paper always looked white because of all the yellow light in the area. The point I'm taking a while coming to, is that what we perceive is subject to the viewing circumstances.

The "true" color of the object is up for debate, I suppose. It could be what the pigment of the object is, or it could be what is reflected for others to see... but much like the "Is Pluto a planet?" debate, even if sufficient evidence was present say leaves are actually magenta, so we should call them magenta, many people would so balk at the idea of changing it now. Leaves have always been green (well, during the spring and summer I guess) and will likely remain so. (Frankly, Pluto isn't a planet, for goodness sakes)

Now, the solid pigment color spectrum is different than that of the light spectrum--for instance, in solids:
Red + Blue = Purple, Blue + Yellow = Green, Red + Yellow = Orange


Whereas in the white light spectrum:
Red + Blue = Purple, Blue + Green = Turquoise?, Red + Green = Yellow.


It's changed up... I forget why... anyways, everything we see, or don't see, is subject to so many conditions it's almost hard to say anything is any one color.

And the stars? I think they emit certain colors partially because of the gases that are burning in that star.

Now let's think about color-blind people.... what's going on there? Actually, you think about color-blind people, cause this is starting to make my head hurt.


Quote Originally Posted by Rota View Post
What color is a mirror?

Mirrors certainly reflect light. Is a mirror technically white, since it reflects every color? No.
The difference is that a mirror CAN reflect all colors. But, it only reflects the certain color that is reflecting into the mirror at any given moment.

Is a mirror actually perfect black? no
Since it completely repels every color of lightwave sent at it, it could be argued that a mirror is the true absence of color like black. But, black absorbs the light, rather than repelling it.

A mirror has characteristics of black, and characteristics of white, yet it isn't either, and it isn't grey.

What color reflects every color, but only as those colors are reflected into it?

Wow, mirrors are hard to describe for the purposes of this conversation.

This is slightly easier for me to think about. See, it's not the fact that there is a particular color that is reflective, it's just the properties of the materials is reflective. Mirrors nowadays have a type of silver backing to them. Mirrors in ancients days were sometimes made of highly polished metals, like bronze.

Basically all items are just tiny bits of the same type (or corresponding bits) that are bonded together to make a big item... I forget if it's molecules, or atoms, or whatever. The bonds are formed in partcular patterns. Salt, for instance, makes little squarish bonds, so it has square shape.

Thinking further, items that form bonds with defined flat planes are reflective... because they reflect light all in the same direction at once. Metals that are in basic ore form aren't reflective that much. Form it into something smooth, it becomes more reflective. In the case of polished metal that is reflective enough to be a mirror, it may be the case that the act of polishing smooths the metal, but also if you use oil, then the transmission of light is perhaps smoothed further?

Think about clear glass... light passes through it, yet at angles it can reflect light because of it's smooth, flat plane...