NationStates Jolt Archive

What are the primary colors? A good friend and I had quite an interesting debate about this.

One of us claimed that the primary colors are: Red, Green and Blue. The other of us that they are: Red, Yellow and Blue.

After some chasing, tackles, a wedgie and a sudden violent strike to a groin, we decided to take pause from our debate to look it up. We, of course, found a reasonable answer.

To be honest, the final answer seemed anti-climactic at that point. :p

What do you think are the Primary Colors?

((Poll coming))

Both :)

If you're mixing light (eg. monitor/TV) they're RGB.
If you're mixing other stuff (paint, I think) they're red, yellow, blue.

I think it's to do with one absorbing light and one reflecting it, but that sounds like Fizzix to me and I'm too rusty to be certain.

Edit: Timewarp to First Post!

Red, blue and yellow.

You can get green by mixing blue and yellow.

The end.


Much more boring than tackling and a wedgie, though. :(

white :p

Primary colours are red blue and yellow, with the complementary colours being orange, green and purple.

Both :)

If you're mixing light (eg. monitor/TV) they're RGB.

Really? o_O

Really? o_O

Yeah. Look real close at an old color TV. You'll see the pixels of red green and blue that make up the image. In pigments you're right though. Red yellow and blue make up the primary colors.

Red, blue and yellow.

You can get green by mixing blue and yellow.



That woman's right. Well, now, she is.

Really? o_O

Absolutely. Take a close look at your tv pixels: They are red, green and blue. There are no yellow pixels. Or examine the lamps on a projection tv. There's no yellow lamp. *nod*

Really? o_O

For really. If you want Extremely Trippy results, you can play with your monitor settings and remove all red, green or blue from your picture.

Octarine. *nods*

Red Yellow Blue.

White is a lack of color, black is a lack of light.

...
White is a lack of color...

Then why can you split white light up into a rainbow? :D

Red, green and blue. I think it's different for paint though.

Also:
Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_colours)

Red Yellow Blue.

White is a lack of color, black is a lack of light.

White is all the colours mixed up together.

EDIT: Speaking additively, of course.

Octarine. *nods*
Is it bad that I know that reference?

Then why can you split white light up into a rainbow? :D

Ahh! The plot thickens! :)

Primary colours depend on the medium.
For light, they're red, green & blue.
For piments (paint, ink, etc.), they're cyan, magenta, yellow & black.
However, painters traditionally used red, yellow & blue as primary colours because magenta & cyan were hard to get, see Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_color#Traditional_Painting_Prescripts_.28RYB.29)

In psychology, red, green, yellow & blue are primary colours.

What do you think are the Primary Colors?For which species?
(Adn even then, it's different for those individuals that happen to have more or fewer types of color receptors; e.g. in the case fo color blindness)

What are the primary colors? A good friend and I had quite an interesting debate about this.

One of us claimed that the primary colors are: Red, Green and Blue. The other of us that they are: Red, Yellow and Blue.

After some chasing, tackles, a wedgie and a sudden violent strike to a groin, we decided to take pause from our debate to look it up. We, of course, found a reasonable answer.

To be honest, the final answer seemed anti-climactic at that point. :p

What do you think are the Primary Colors?

((Poll coming))

As of this time for humans, they are Red, Blue, and Green. But scientists are working on expanding this by figuring out how to add more cones and rods in the eye to recognize, say, high-range infrared as a color.

For which species?
(Adn even then, it's different for those individuals that happen to have more or fewer types of color receptors; e.g. in the case fo color blindness)

http://www.tshirthell.com/shirts/products/a559/a559_thumb.gif

:D

http://www.tshirthell.com/shirts/products/a559/a559_thumb.gif

:DIf they weren't mostly guys, maybe I'd try ;)

If they weren't mostly guys, maybe I'd try ;)

There's bound to be some hot colourblind wimminz.

There's bound to be some hot colourblind wimminz.Bound to be some; but it mostly occurs in men: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_blindness#Epidemiology Nature is horribly unfair to men in this respect.

Really? o_O

Yes. We talked about that in psychology. It's red, blue, and green for light, and for things like mixing paints it's red, blue, and yellow. That's what my textbook said.

Bound to be some; but it mostly occurs in men: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_blindness#Epidemiology Nature is horribly unfair to men in this respect.

Yeah. We have it so hard. Women get off lucky with the whole menstruation and childbirth.

Red, Green, and Blue. Screw the subtractive process, colour is a property of light.

Red, Green, and Blue. Screw the subtractive process, colour is a property of light.

A subjective property of light.

Ahh! The plot thickens! :)

No groin kicks for me thanks

As of this time for humans, they are Red, Blue, and Green. But scientists are working on expanding this by figuring out how to add more cones and rods in the eye to recognize, say, high-range infrared as a color.

It's thought there are a few (very few) women who have four kinds of cones, thus seeing color a bit differently than everyone else.

Males are vastly more likely to be color blind than women.

Well, it's true that:
There are additive primaries...subtractive primaries...
but if someone tried to "wedgie" me...

Primary colours depend on the medium.
For light, they're red, green & blue.
For piments (paint, ink, etc.), they're cyan, magenta, yellow & black.
However, painters traditionally used red, yellow & blue as primary colours because magenta & cyan were hard to get, see Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_color#Traditional_Painting_Prescripts_.28RYB.29)

In psychology, red, green, yellow & blue are primary colours.
That is the truth.

Also in biology they're red, green and blue for human day vision but our night vision is color blind. It's different for other species, for example many birds can see ultraviolet.

Really? o_O

yeah, we used to have a projection TV and it had a big red, blue, and green light (three lights actually, one for each color)

it's easier to take the blue out of the green than to produce yellow....if that makes sense (it's my super simplified explanation suitable for a 3 year old)


in anything other than trying to mix light......it's red, yellow, and blue.

although in printing you have different names for them.....but I haven't worked in printing in years......cyan, yellow....something else..... magenta! yeah.

Dear God why is this a poll?!?!?!?!?:upyours:

In psychology, red, green, yellow & blue are primary colours.

<3

*has not been wedgied yet, but probably because sexy-yet-nerdy girls are intimidating* :P

A subjective property of light.

Not subjective. Based on wavelength.

Dear God why is this a poll?!?!?!?!?:upyours:

Dear God why don't I have you on ignore???

edit to add: Fixed :)

Well, it's the correct song, but I'm pretty sure the video isn't the band's . . .What's your favourite colour (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fY2bqJqmQ4)?

A subjective property of light.

really? it's based on wavelength, which is hardly something subjective.

Dear God why is this a poll?!?!?!?!?:upyours:

Because no thread is complete wwithout a poll.

Not subjective. Based on wavelength.

What colour is ultraviolet light?

What colour is ultraviolet light?

That's like asking what color visible light is. But it's the electromagnetic energy with higher frequency than purple, sort of a "super-purple" if you will.

What colour is ultraviolet light?

Here's a clicky linky thingy (http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtualText/Spectrpy/UV-Vis/spectrum.htm). Maybe you gots room in yer sig to add it? :fluffle:

What colour is ultraviolet light?

What colour is ultraviolent light?

I was taugh by my parents Yellow, Magenta and Cyan. *shrugs*

I was taugh by my parents Yellow, Magenta and Cyan. *shrugs*

Artists are so weird.

What colour is ultraviolent light?
You'll need to ask Alex (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066921/) for that one. . .

What colour is ultraviolent light?
The opposite to the colour of Krovvy.
[Edit]
Nice nija Curious Inquiry.

That's like asking what color visible light is. But it's the electromagnetic energy with higher frequency than purple, sort of a "super-purple" if you will.

I'll be more specific then. What colour is light with a wavelength of 300nm?

What colour is ultraviolet light?

oh come on. What will you be asking me next? What colour is visible light? What colour are Radio waves?

oh come on. What will you be asking me next? What colour is visible light? What colour are Radio waves?

If colour is a property of light the surely all light has a colour.

If colour is a property of light the surely all light has a colour.

So they missed out the word "visible". Really a big deal?

So they missed out the word "visible". Really a big deal?

Did he?

Did he?

I dunno. It didn't seem like a big deal, so I didn't bother reading the posts. :p

If colour is a property of light the surely all light has a colour.

By "light" I meant visible light. I thought that it would surely be obvious, but no, you have to go around looking for loopholes.

lilac, lilac, and ... lilac :)

http://www.fanlistings.org/futurama/images/leela.gif

If colour is a property of light the surely all light has a colour.
All electromagnetic radiation has a color but as we humans can only detect red, green and blue we can only experience and imagine mixes of those 3 colors. It may be hard to accept that there are some colors we humans can't experience and therefore can't imagine either but species that can detect for example ultraviolet does experience that color and mixes between it and other colors.

RGB or CYMK

Yeah. Look real close at an old color TV. You'll see the pixels of red green and blue that make up the image. In pigments you're right though. Red yellow and blue make up the primary colors.
Also, if you've ever tried using hexidecimal notation to indicate a colour, you know that it's amount of red + amount of green + amount of blue

http://www.tshirthell.com/shirts/products/a559/a559_thumb.gif

:D
That shirt doesn't actually work. I showed it to my bf (who is colour blind) and he could still read it. I can't remember if it wasn't terribly obvious or not though... I showed him months ago.

That shirt doesn't actually work. I showed it to my bf (who is colour blind) and he could still read it. I can't remember if it wasn't terribly obvious or not though... I showed him months ago.

Does it say 'Fuck I'm Color Blind'? I'm not, and can barely read it...

Does it say 'Fuck I'm Color Blind'? I'm not, and can barely read it...

It says "Fuck the colour blind" which to me is an extremely offensive statement.

It says "Fuck the colour blind" which to me is an extremely offensive statement.

because you feel that color blind people don't need charity sex?

Gray
and
Grey

There be only two primary colours.

White light= all visible color (The visble spectrum is relativley miniscule)

White object= no color

Objects absorb all colors in the spectrum, except for the one we see (i.e. plants give of green, because the opposite ends of the spectrum offer more energy; green is a neutural color inbetween the visible spectrum)

Black light= no light stupid (the product black-light is a misnomer)

Black object= all colors

additive primarys and subctractive primarys.

Both :)

If you're mixing light (eg. monitor/TV) they're RGB.
If you're mixing other stuff (paint, I think) they're red, yellow, blue.

Yup. With light, red has the longest wavelength and blue has the shortest, green is in the middle, and I'm not entirely sure how the mixing works because my understanding of waves is poor.

Depends what you are mixing...
additive color mixing (light) uses red, blue, and green.
red and blue make magenta
blue and green make cyan
green and red make yellow
red blue and green make white
lack of light makes black

subtractive color mixing (pigment) uses magenta, cyan, and yellow
magenta and cyan make purple
cyan and yellow make green
yellow and magenta make orange
magenta cyan and yellow make black
lack of pigment makes white

Both :)

If you're mixing light (eg. monitor/TV) they're RGB.
If you're mixing other stuff (paint, I think) they're red, yellow, blue.

I think it's to do with one absorbing light and one reflecting it, but that sounds like Fizzix to me and I'm too rusty to be certain.


Right.
You can use RGB with lights or CYM (cyan, yellow, magenta) with paints.

In RGB , assuming equal intensity, R+G=Y, R+B=M, G+B=C and R+G+B=white.
In CYM, C+Y=G, C+M=B, Y+M=R and C+Y+M=black.

Anyway, in the eye, the colour we are most sensitive to are blue (night vision), bluish-green and yellowish-green (daylight vision).

Cone cells in the human eye

from wiki (color vision)

Cone type
Name Range Peak
S β (Blue) 400..500 nm 420 nm
M γ (Bluish-Green) 450..630 nm 534 nm
L ρ (Yellowish-Green) 500..700 nm 564 nm


Simple, ain't it?

Yup. With light, red has the longest wavelength and blue has the shortest, green is in the middle, and I'm not entirely sure how the mixing works because my understanding of waves is poor.

It's not a problem with waves mixing, it's just the sensitivity of the human eye. Colour is the way our brain "reads" the cone-cells of our retina.

really? it's based on wavelength, which is hardly something subjective.As far as I'm aware the choice is subjective. The primary colours are chosen, and nor are they 'perfect' in the sense that not all colours can be produced from the primaries. There are no set of colours that can be mixed to produce all colours. What they can do is produce any colour in their gamut. If you've ever been mixing colours in Photoshop and you see the cube on the right appear then that means you've mixed a colour that is possible to create in RGB, but not in CYMK. Of course though your monitor is unable to show you the colours that are outside of its own gamut, which can lead to confusion.

And then once you have the physics of colour theory sorted out you have to deal with the psychology of colour theory too (yellow is percieved differently if it is on a white background as opposed to a black background and so on).

If colour is a property of light the surely all light has a colour.That's an interesting debate as whether colour is a property of light. I come down heavily on the side that it isn't. For me, colour is merely the brain's interpretation of light.

This is what comes from having both parents study film and photography and then go on to work in the Film and TV industry. You get to know a fair amount about colour theory and other things. It is fascinating though, and I've managed to escape all wedgies despite it all though. [/nerdiness]

From my elementary art class - black is the exclusion of color, white is the inclusion of all color. If something appears blue to you, it's because it's absorbed all the colors except blue - so what appears blue is really the inclusion of all colors except blue, or blue is the color being reflected. So on for all the other colors.

Red, blue and yellow are the primary colors, orange, purple and green are the secondary colors -0 i.e. the colors created by mixing primary colors. Variations on these are created by adding in white, black and other colors in more or less amounts. If you want brown combine two complementary colors like purple and yellow. If you want to show a shadow, mix a complementary color to the shadowed area (if you have a red flower, mix green in with red for the area to be shadowed).

It says "Fuck the colour blind" which to me is an extremely offensive statement.

What's wrong with fucking the color blind? Assuming it's consensual, of course.

Does it say 'Fuck I'm Color Blind'? I'm not, and can barely read it...I originally thought it said 'Fuck the color bund'. Which understandable didn't make any sense to me at all. I thought it was some colour theory term I hadn't heard before. Which is stupid of me because I seen this picture a thousand times before.

What's wrong with fucking the color blind? Assuming it's consensual, of course.

It's not like condoms are color-coded. :p

Also, if you've ever tried using hexidecimal notation to indicate a colour, you know that it's amount of red + amount of green + amount of blue

If the hex numbers represent RGB - you could use hexadecimal numbers for anything you can use decimal numbers for.

white, black, and grey?

If the hex numbers represent RGB - you could use hexadecimal numbers for anything you can use decimal numbers for.
Yes you could if you wanted to because the decimal system works with any number of digits. When counting up you increase the first digit from the right each time. When you reach the highest digit you start over at 0 and increase the next digit a step. If you have only the digits 0, 1 and 2 you'd count:
0
1 Increased 0 to 1.
2 Increased 1 to 2.
10 There is no 3 so instead we must start over and also increase the next number from 0 to 1.
11 Increased 0 to 1.
12 Increased 1 to 2.
20 Reached the highest digit, we had to start over again so increase the next number again.

It is extreamly confusing to people who are used to 10 comming after 9 that it now comes after 2 but counting still works and therefore it's a functional number system and all math works with it. Three, two, eight, ten, sixteen, twenty nine, fifty three or any other number of digits works just fine. We just happen to be used to having ten digits.

Yes you could if you wanted to because the decimal system works with any number of digits. When counting up you increase the first digit from the right each time. When you reach the highest digit you start over at 0 and increase the next digit a step. If you have only the digits 0, 1 and 2 you'd count:
0
1 Increased 0 to 1.
2 Increased 1 to 2.
10 There is no 3 so instead we must start over and also increase the next number from 0 to 1.
11 Increased 0 to 1.
12 Increased 1 to 2.
20 Reached the highest digit, we had to start over again so increase the next number again.

It is extreamly confusing to people who are used to 10 comming after 9 that it now comes after 2 but counting still works and therefore it's a functional number system and all math works with it. Three, two, eight, ten, sixteen, twenty nine, fifty three or any other number of digits works just fine. We just happen to be used to having ten digits.

Yeah. For anyone who wants it, here's the wikipedia page on bases: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_base

speaking as an art student I'd say Red Yellow and Blue because you can't mix other colours together to get them....

Yes you could if you wanted to because the decimal system works with any number of digits. When counting up you increase the first digit from the right each time. When you reach the highest digit you start over at 0 and increase the next digit a step. If you have only the digits 0, 1 and 2 you'd count:
0
1 Increased 0 to 1.
2 Increased 1 to 2.
10 There is no 3 so instead we must start over and also increase the next number from 0 to 1.
11 Increased 0 to 1.
12 Increased 1 to 2.
20 Reached the highest digit, we had to start over again so increase the next number again.

It is extreamly confusing to people who are used to 10 comming after 9 that it now comes after 2 but counting still works and therefore it's a functional number system and all math works with it. Three, two, eight, ten, sixteen, twenty nine, fifty three or any other number of digits works just fine. We just happen to be used to having ten digits.There are only 10 kinds of people in the world, those who get binary, and those who don't ;)

additive: Red, Green, Blue
subtractive: Yellow, Cyan, Magenta

speaking as an art student I'd say Red Yellow and Blue because you can't mix other colours together to get them....

actuall, with light, if you mix red and green you get yellow. This is just one of the ways your argument is wrong.

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world, those who get binary, and those who don't ;)

YAY! :D

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world, those who get binary, and those who don't ;)

I think it's funnier (and own a t-shirt which says) "There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who read binary, and those who get laid."

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world, those who get binary, and those who don't ;)
Another variant
"There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who can count in ternary, and those who can't."

I think it's funnier (and own a t-shirt which says) "There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who read binary, and those who get laid."

I have a T-shirt that says "If only you and DEAD people can read Hex, how many people can read Hex?"

nobody gets it........'cept for hubby.

I have a T-shirt that says "If only you and DEAD people can read Hex, how many people can read Hex?"

nobody gets it........'cept for hubby.Hmm.. If you'd add one more, DEAF people could read hex.

Another variant
"There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who can count in ternary, and those who can't."

Assuming ternary means base-3, you're missing a kind of person - or is that the joke?

Assuming ternary means base-3, you're missing a kind of person - or is that the joke?Yes. "clever" isn't it :p There's 1000000 of them, but I won't say in which base.

Light is concentrated in an adictive way, symbolizing red green and blue, but paint and art is considered, a Cyan Magenta and yellow.

Red, blue and yellow.

You can get green by mixing blue and yellow.

The end.


Much more boring than tackling and a wedgie, though. :(
You can get yellow by mixing red light and green light.

You can get yellow by mixing red light and green light.Well, it'll seems yellow to (most of) us, anyway. Which I'm sure is what you mean, but it provides a bridge to point out that if you look at the spectrum, there's still no trace of the wavelength associated with yellow.
Colour is really something we project on to the world, and not a property of objects nor of light (although certainly associated with it). If you alternate black and white with the right frequency, you can actually make people perceive color; even though at any one moment there is only pure white, or nothing.

<------ Sees everything in Black - White - Brown :):fluffle: