Answer 1:
What a great question, thank you!
While the eyes are needed to detect light in the
environment, it is the brain that is needed to
see color. What I mean by this is that color
does not exist anywhere but in your brain. Wow.
What’s really happening is that each object
in the world reflects certain types of light which
special cells in your eyes called cones can
detect. Your brain, however, does all sorts of
things to the light that the eyes take in,
including determining what colors to make things
appear. With different eyes and a different brain,
things would appear to have much different colors,
or none at all. For instance, dogs see a world
that is without color.
So now for your question. The human eye and brain
can only perceive a certain range of different
colors, or wavelengths, of light, what is
called the visual spectrum This includes all
the colors we can see. There are other
wavelengths we cannot see, like infrared light
or ultraviolent light. But because our biology
is not designed to detect that type of light, we
cannot perceive it, or even imagine such new
colors. The brain constrains what colors it can
imagine based on how it was designed by
evolution.
But wait! There is a way to see colors that are
beyond the natural abilities of the human visual
system! We can use optical illusions to see
what are called chimerical colors, which
are new colors that can only be perceived by
tricking our own brain. You can find an
example here:
chimerical
Focus on one of the black cross-hairs, when the
picture shifts you may be able to see, for a brief
second, an afterimage of a color that is
impossible to see in nature. The brain is truly
amazing!
Thanks again for the great question,
Spencer Click Here to return to the search form.
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