Hi to all. I'd like to propose a question to everyone in this forum. Hope you guys and gals can contribute your opinions and try to derive a conclusion to the following question:
Is black a colour?
I like to announce that this forum is strictly for friendly discussion with regards to the abovementioned topic. Please don't do flaming here. Thanks.
Well as a start, people may ask me: Why ask this question? So silly. Actually this question came into my mind just after Directors topic today. I've applied what I know in science and have the following to present:
According to the definition of some online encyclopedias, black is defined as an absence of colour. My own definition of black is a phenomenon which totally absorbs all light shining on it, thus rendering it black. Now, is black considered a colour?
Points raised:
1) In the electromagnetic spectrum, the human eye can ONLY see the visible light part of the spectrum, that is white light consisting of the 7 basic components - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. This is familiar for those science students. Since black is not one of the 7 basic colours, black itself is not a colour. On the other hand, it can be argued that the random combination of certain, if not all, colours together can produce black. But does that mean that we mix colours together to produce something not considered a colour, something we cannot see? If black is a colour, it should be within the visible light spectrum but apparently it is not.
2) Take a black object and a transparent glass for example. In both cases, light from a source does not reflect back to our eye, but for the black object, light is simply absorbed while the transparent glass actually allows light to pass through. However we compare both cases, since both light does not return to us, by right we should see both as identical but instead we see one as black object, another as a transparent glass. Does the future path of the light determine the 'blackness' of an object?
