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I know that color spaces are a thing (I just don't yet understand WHY), and surely tetrachromatic people can distinguish more colors. So I'm sorta playing devi

I know that color spaces are a thing (I just don't yet understand WHY), and surely tetrachromatic people can distinguish more colors. So I'm sorta playing devil's advocate... I'm eager to have an 'aha!' moment over here. Does not this: Blue + Yellow = Green simply mean this? (475nm + 570nm) / 2 = 523nm (the average) Supposing that wavelength was the only property of light, yes, two ideal cones could determine exactly where on the spectrum some light belongs. However, there's intensity to be measured, too. Variable intensity means that if you just got two scalar values from two sensors... you haven't narrowed it down to a specific wavelength, because those same two values would arise for states. ..Right?

schoen 10y ago
The blue + yellow = green is in subtractive mixing so it doesn't directly apply here, but taking red + green = yellow from additive mixing, there are two different things that could happen: * you can have a red light and a green light both shining together (like on your computer screen) * you can have a pure yellow light (like from a yellow laser, or the yellow part of a rainbow) These are physically different, as could be detected by a spectroscope. But for a normal trichromat human, perceiving either produces the same color sensation and we can't distinguish them using our eyes (because the excitation of the cones produced by either is roughly equivalent). (I should add that there can be still other combinations of wavelengths which, when they occur together at the same time, we would perceive as the same yellow.) If you add more cones, you could hope to distinguish these physically different phenomena, and have them somehow produce different sensations. However, we also apparently can't describe what those sensations would be like... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_argument#Thought_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_argument#Thought_exp...
- daveloyall 10y ago
  Aha!

schoen 10y ago

The blue + yellow = green is in subtractive mixing so it doesn't directly apply here, but taking red + green = yellow from additive mixing, there are two different things that could happen: * you can have a red light and a green light both shining together (like on your computer screen) * you can have a pure yellow light (like from a yellow laser, or the yellow part of a rainbow) These are physically different, as could be detected by a spectroscope. But for a normal trichromat human, perceiving either produces the same color sensation and we can't distinguish them using our eyes (because the excitation of the cones produced by either is roughly equivalent). (I should add that there can be still other combinations of wavelengths which, when they occur together at the same time, we would perceive as the same yellow.) If you add more cones, you could hope to distinguish these physically different phenomena, and have them somehow produce different sensations. However, we also apparently can't describe what those sensations would be like... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_argument#Thought_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_argument#Thought_exp...

daveloyall 10y ago
Aha!