Does color exist?

[phil_]

Originally Posted by Shyria Dracnoir

When did Aero become a cat?

Everyone is a cat when no one is watching.

[McTahr]

Color is merely our representation of the wavelength of the light, which is a physical property of the individual photons that happened to hop skip and jump into our eyes.

Follow: (Energy = planck's constant * frequency) & (The speed of light = wavelength * frequency) (For vacuum / non-medium situations only. Things change a bit otherwise but the principle holds.)

When that wavelength gets too long (thus decreasing the frequency / energy) we enter the infrared range.

When that wavelength gets too short (thus increasing the frequency / energy) we enter the ultraviolet range.

Light has this property regardless of observation. Our "naming" of it is merely a classification system, similar to identifying different breeds of dog as different breeds. Before we came along, they were just dogs (not even that, they were just a thing that was there because even "dog" didn't exist, really). But the distinction existed regardless of outside perception or nomenclature.

Carrying the analogy further, if someone was told their entire life a chihuahua was a doberman, they'd be pretty confused at why people were scared of dobermans. Same with colors, as explained before. Genetic abnormalities can result in different perception of these colors through either sensory or neurological defects. Either a problem where the light is taken in, or where it's processed. Either way, still physically the same color we see, regardless of how it is perceived.

Re: Trees, sound waves also exist regardless of perception or nomenclature, but do require a medium for propagation.

Originally Posted by phil_

frequencies between 400nm and 700nm

Slight correction: Frequencies are measured in Hertz, or 1/s
These are the correct (roughly) wavelengths of visible electromagnetic radiation.

---------- Post added at 01:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:02 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Menarker

There is something that does boggle my mind at times...

Premise 1: A sun's ray contains pretty much a full spectrum of colors (even if we humans can't detect them all naturally). So it pretty much has a rainbow of colors.
Premise 2: Humans (and certain animals presumably) cannot see color of objects unless light reflects onto the object and onto our retina.
Premise 3: In regards to most objects, the color white is the reflection of all the colors, and black is the absorption of all the colors with the other colors falling within the two extremes.

Mindscrew Conclusion 1: Doesn't that technically mean that regarding the actual physical properties of any object, that they are simultaneously multiple hues of colors and that the "color" we refer to is actually the make-up of all the colors that got reflected to us. So hypothetically, an apple which we think is red is actually NOT actually red in its physical layout, but just what we call it because the reflected combination of hues that is rejected/reflected by the object comes to our eyes and we call it the color Red because that is what we perceive (and because it is easier than saying "This object possesses X degree of red, Y degree of blue and Z degree of green")?
(The above Red/Blue/Green assumes the general computer pixel-color logic of mixing hues)

Look at spectral emissions as an example. Hydrogen atoms only absorb visible light of energies at the colors in that first picture, which excites electrons from particular energy levels to particular energy levels. Of course, if we looked at Hydrogen absorbing white light, we'd just see an amalgamation of those colors sent back at us, as those excited electrons eventually crash and drop back down to their previous energy state (and in doing so emit an equal energy photon). With our biological sensory equipment we can't discern those individual spectra, and generally just see the most overpowering of them. For plants as an example, this is often green, because they've evolved to absorb around that range (non-green) of the spectrum because of their receptors for photosynthesis specifically needing that energy to begin their electron transfer.

Originally Posted by Menarker

Separate Question: So if a black object absorbs all colors, why can I distinctively see a black object? Is it just that I can see its absence in contrast to all the other non-black objects? Is the shade of black we see in most objects an imperfect representation of the color black that does not in fact absorb all colors?

Black-body radiation. It's still emitting something.

---------- Post added at 01:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:35 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Ryong

Our eyes detect light in a certain range and our ears detect noise in a certain range. Of course, they're orders of magnitude apart, but would it be somehow possible to HEAR light and SEE sound?

Yes.

Synesthesia.

---------- Post added at 01:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:47 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Aerozord

Yes these wavelengths of light exist, but in the objective reality outside human perception does it manifest as a color.

Let me use a very specific comparison to explain. A hot pepper is not in fact hot, it merely triggers the sensation of heat on the tongue. Likewise having your hands so cold they begin to burn. The sensation of "hot" is artificial, a perception of a physical property

A hot pepper is hot because of capsaicin, and this is again an evolutionary adaptation. Mammals don't travel well. Birds do. Birds don't have receptors for capsaicin. Mammals do.

It's essentially a deterrent to aid in seed delivery. More to the point: It's a physical response, your nerves essentially do believe they are burning. It triggers (roughly) the same response as burning, the same endorphins are released. (This is actually why some heat-seekers go after them. The "masochistic high.") The only reason non-mammals don't respond specifically to this property is because they don't have the receptors for it. However this is a much less viable analogy as the burning property is bestowed by the receiver, rather than inherent to the "particle."

Re: Hands BRRR: Nerves again. They so wacky.

E: Edited for clarification / corrections / candy

[Ryong]

Oh I know Synesthesia, I mean, other animals can see infrared or ultraviolet, would it be possible - I don't mean humanly possible, just possible in general - to "see", say, radio waves and/or hear a color?

[McTahr]

Through photoreceptor implants and neurological triggering? Maybe. We can already "see" these wavelengths with computers, antennas, etc. The trick is not only transferring the signal to the brain, but making the brain effectively "color code" the signal for us into something we can perceive.

The problem is we still effectively know so very, very little about the brain.

[phil_]

Originally Posted by McTahr

Frequencies

And I tried so hard to use the correct terms in that post.

[McTahr]

Aside from the word flub you were fine. You even had the correct wavelengths generally used to broadly describe the visible spectrum, which is miles ahead of the layman.

[phil_]

Originally Posted by McTahr

Aside from the word flub you were fine. You even had the correct wavelengths generally used to broadly describe the visible spectrum, which is miles ahead of the layman.

Full disclosure: I googled "visible spectrum" to get the range from image results. I am as lay as a man with a B.S. can be. I even looked up "layman" to make sure that sentence made sense. It doesn't, but I got an awful pun out of it.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by McTahr

Through photoreceptor implants and neurological triggering? Maybe. We can already "see" these wavelengths with computers, antennas, etc. The trick is not only transferring the signal to the brain, but making the brain effectively "color code" the signal for us into something we can perceive.

The problem is we still effectively know so very, very little about the brain.

What I wonder is, will we see new colors, or will our brains perceive them as closest thing it can correlate like ultraviolet being a very deep purple or something.

[Magus]

Originally Posted by Aerozord

What I wonder is, will we see new colors, or will our brains perceive them as closest thing it can correlate like ultraviolet being a very deep purple or something.

It will be octarine, clearly.

[McTahr]

That's part of what I was getting at. What sort of signal would we even send? Assuming we have control over sensory perception, we could accompany the ultraviolet spectrum with the scent of violets, and then just scale through it in a similar manner, but then how do you discern between the UV radiation and visible radiation? Context clues?

Perception and the ability to deliver that perception would be the biggest hurdles. We already have photoreceptors down pretty well.