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Fuchsia is not a combination of pink and purple. It is the color your brain comes up with when it sees contradictory color signals (such as very high and very l

by c3534l 10y ago

Fuchsia is not a combination of pink and purple. It is the color your brain comes up with when it sees contradictory color signals (such as very high and very low wavelengths without the appropriate middle stimulation). It's the only color not in the rainbow. As you can see from this additive color program (http://trycolors.com/?try=1&ffb5d9=0&c31cff=0 http://trycolors.com/?try=1&ffb5d9=0&c31cff=0), pink and purple create a lavender color. Whereas fuscia is what happens when you combine colors in an unusual way (http://www.exploratorium.edu/sites/default/files/ColoredShadows_DSC_9965_H1v2.jpg http://www.exploratorium.edu/sites/default/files/ColoredShad...). Normally I wouldn't be this pedantic, but this is hackernews after all.

niftich 10y ago
Some more background on the 'line of purples', of which fuchsia is a part: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/HBASE/vision/colper.html http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/HBASE/vision/colper.htm...
- alimw 10y ago
  From your reference: "The 'line of purples' across the bottom represents colors that cannot be produced by any single wavelength of light." The GP is suggesting that fuchsia is special, but surely what he/she said applies to all the purples?
basemi 10y ago
yes and from !wen: "In the RGB color model, used to create colors on computers and television screens, and in web colors, fuchsia and magenta are exactly the same color, made by mixing blue and red light at full and equal intensity."
twelvechairs 10y ago
To be clear on its origin its from the fuchsia flower which was made into the fuchsine dye which has these properties. See for its relationship to the visual spectrum [1] noting that the visual spectrum is ~400-700nm. The plant absorbs only the middle of the visual spectrum not the ends. This is the kind of stuff neither RGB monitors nor CMYK prints can capture well. Note this isnt the complete story either as your eye may percieve it very similarly to purple anyway due to the way we see light (through our rods and cones which clump the spectra again anyway and are subtlety different for everyone). [1] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bo_Hu12/publication/231232432/figure/fig10/AS:300531290525699@1448663651114/Figure-12-The-absorption-spectra-of-the-acid-fuchsine-solution-under-exposure-of-the-UV.png https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bo_Hu12/publication/231...
Apaze 10y ago
If you're really into colors, I suggest to read the xkcd: https://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ https://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ Have fun!
- erelde 10y ago
  I forgot about this, Randall Munroe sometimes does things I'd like to do. And, I also "weep for my gender".
jobigoud 10y ago
I think you are conflating purple with (spectral) violet here. All purples are created from the mixing of high and low wavelength and are not present in the rainbow. Violet, which is present in the rainbow, is not available for addition in the links provided since it can't be represented on computers using blue as their lowest wavelength primary.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
HemanHeartYou 10y ago
I knew I'd find this comment when I came here.
snarfy 10y ago
A rainbow starts at red and ends a violet. In your brain, the rainbow wraps around in a circle, connecting red and violet. This is not the reality of the wavelengths, so your brain makes up a color that fits between red and violet.
- cududa 10y ago
  Do you mean a cylinder?
- Ericson2314 10y ago
  It's also almost an octave of color---I cut my brain some slack
jpfed 10y ago
To be yet more pedantic, it's the only fully-saturated color that's not present in the rainbow. Colors are perceptual phenomena- the interpretation of a spectrum of light impinging on a patch of retina that almost invariably contains more than one frequency at a time. Colors include white, black, gray, pink, tan, beige, baby blue- none of which are in the rainbow.
- rsync 10y ago
  How do I read more about this "not being in the rainbow" aspect of this color ? Wikipedia[1] has nothing to say about it ... in fact, the wiki definition of "fuchsia and magenta are exactly the same color, made by mixing blue and red light at full and equal intensity" makes it seem not that interesting at all ... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuchsia_(color) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuchsia_(color)
  - jpfed 10y ago
    >How do I read more about this "not being in the rainbow" aspect of this color ? By a color "not being in the rainbow" we mean that if you take light and spatially separate its different frequencies (like what happens in a prism or droplet of water), none of those individual frequencies will produce that given color response. And no, it's not that interesting. Almost all color perception experiences involve stimulating a patch of retina with multiple frequencies; we've given names to many of those experiences.
  - Negitivefrags 10y ago
    A way that I have had the idea of this explained is this. There are two ways to experience most colours. Take yellow. You could experience yellow by seeing pure yellow light which is at the yellow wavelength. The other way to experience yellow is by seeing a mixture of red and green wavelength light. Your eye can't tell the difference between these two types of yellow. The yellow as reflected off a banana is "real" yellow. The yellow you see coming out of your computer monitor is actually just a mix of red and green. Magenta is interesting because the only way to experience it is by a combinations blue and red. There is no "real" magenta. This video explains this concept very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3unPcJDbCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3unPcJDbCc
Manishearth 10y ago
> It's the only color not in the rainbow. Wrong. I hate this argument about pink/fuchsia being "special". most colors are not in the rainbow. most colors are what our brain comes up with when it gets contradictory signals. However, most colors are "close enough" to a color that's in the rainbow. Pink isn't. But this is very subjective and depends on the culture you originate from -- for example, in Japan green and blue are often regarded to be shades of the same color. I'm sure that similar things can happen with pink and red. If you've grown up with the same word for pink and red, thought of them as the same color, and only later learned names for the individuals shades, you'd probably say that pink is in the rainbow (and perhaps some subdivision of blue is not)
- IshKebab 10y ago
  No you're wrong. Pink is the only colour that doesn't correspond to a colour on the rainbow (a "real" colour if you like). Rainbow colours are single-frequency, i.e. they can be generated by a laser. You can have a red laser, a blue laser, a yellow laser, etc. But you can't have a pink laser. But also, that doesn't mean that fuschia isn't a combination of pink and purple. OP is being super-pedantic to the point of being wrong.
  - Manishearth 10y ago
    You haven't refuted my point. I agree that rainbow colors are single-frequency. I'm asserting that most colors we see are not. Rainbow red is single-frequency. Most shades of red which we see are not. Rainbow blue is single-frequency. Most shades of blue which we see are not. Etc. You can have a red laser, but not a laser for most shades of red. You can't have things like a maroon laser. The only reason pink is special is because we do not consider it to be a shade of a rainbow color, which is a cultural thing.

by c3534l 10y ago

niftich 10y ago

Some more background on the 'line of purples', of which fuchsia is a part: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/HBASE/vision/colper.html http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/HBASE/vision/colper.htm...

alimw 10y ago
From your reference: "The 'line of purples' across the bottom represents colors that cannot be produced by any single wavelength of light." The GP is suggesting that fuchsia is special, but surely what he/she said applies to all the purples?

basemi 10y ago

yes and from !wen: "In the RGB color model, used to create colors on computers and television screens, and in web colors, fuchsia and magenta are exactly the same color, made by mixing blue and red light at full and equal intensity."

twelvechairs 10y ago

To be clear on its origin its from the fuchsia flower which was made into the fuchsine dye which has these properties. See for its relationship to the visual spectrum [1] noting that the visual spectrum is ~400-700nm. The plant absorbs only the middle of the visual spectrum not the ends. This is the kind of stuff neither RGB monitors nor CMYK prints can capture well. Note this isnt the complete story either as your eye may percieve it very similarly to purple anyway due to the way we see light (through our rods and cones which clump the spectra again anyway and are subtlety different for everyone). [1] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bo_Hu12/publication/231232432/figure/fig10/AS:300531290525699@1448663651114/Figure-12-The-absorption-spectra-of-the-acid-fuchsine-solution-under-exposure-of-the-UV.png https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bo_Hu12/publication/231...

Apaze 10y ago

If you're really into colors, I suggest to read the xkcd: https://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ https://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ Have fun!

erelde 10y ago
I forgot about this, Randall Munroe sometimes does things I'd like to do. And, I also "weep for my gender".

jobigoud 10y ago

I think you are conflating purple with (spectral) violet here. All purples are created from the mixing of high and low wavelength and are not present in the rainbow. Violet, which is present in the rainbow, is not available for addition in the links provided since it can't be represented on computers using blue as their lowest wavelength primary.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

HemanHeartYou 10y ago

I knew I'd find this comment when I came here.

snarfy 10y ago

A rainbow starts at red and ends a violet. In your brain, the rainbow wraps around in a circle, connecting red and violet. This is not the reality of the wavelengths, so your brain makes up a color that fits between red and violet.

cududa 10y ago
Do you mean a cylinder?
Ericson2314 10y ago
It's also almost an octave of color---I cut my brain some slack

jpfed 10y ago

To be yet more pedantic, it's the only fully-saturated color that's not present in the rainbow. Colors are perceptual phenomena- the interpretation of a spectrum of light impinging on a patch of retina that almost invariably contains more than one frequency at a time. Colors include white, black, gray, pink, tan, beige, baby blue- none of which are in the rainbow.

rsync 10y ago
How do I read more about this "not being in the rainbow" aspect of this color ? Wikipedia[1] has nothing to say about it ... in fact, the wiki definition of "fuchsia and magenta are exactly the same color, made by mixing blue and red light at full and equal intensity" makes it seem not that interesting at all ... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuchsia_(color) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuchsia_(color)
- jpfed 10y ago
  >How do I read more about this "not being in the rainbow" aspect of this color ? By a color "not being in the rainbow" we mean that if you take light and spatially separate its different frequencies (like what happens in a prism or droplet of water), none of those individual frequencies will produce that given color response. And no, it's not that interesting. Almost all color perception experiences involve stimulating a patch of retina with multiple frequencies; we've given names to many of those experiences.
- Negitivefrags 10y ago
  A way that I have had the idea of this explained is this. There are two ways to experience most colours. Take yellow. You could experience yellow by seeing pure yellow light which is at the yellow wavelength. The other way to experience yellow is by seeing a mixture of red and green wavelength light. Your eye can't tell the difference between these two types of yellow. The yellow as reflected off a banana is "real" yellow. The yellow you see coming out of your computer monitor is actually just a mix of red and green. Magenta is interesting because the only way to experience it is by a combinations blue and red. There is no "real" magenta. This video explains this concept very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3unPcJDbCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3unPcJDbCc

Manishearth 10y ago

> It's the only color not in the rainbow. Wrong. I hate this argument about pink/fuchsia being "special". most colors are not in the rainbow. most colors are what our brain comes up with when it gets contradictory signals. However, most colors are "close enough" to a color that's in the rainbow. Pink isn't. But this is very subjective and depends on the culture you originate from -- for example, in Japan green and blue are often regarded to be shades of the same color. I'm sure that similar things can happen with pink and red. If you've grown up with the same word for pink and red, thought of them as the same color, and only later learned names for the individuals shades, you'd probably say that pink is in the rainbow (and perhaps some subdivision of blue is not)

IshKebab 10y ago
No you're wrong. Pink is the only colour that doesn't correspond to a colour on the rainbow (a "real" colour if you like). Rainbow colours are single-frequency, i.e. they can be generated by a laser. You can have a red laser, a blue laser, a yellow laser, etc. But you can't have a pink laser. But also, that doesn't mean that fuschia isn't a combination of pink and purple. OP is being super-pedantic to the point of being wrong.
- Manishearth 10y ago
  You haven't refuted my point. I agree that rainbow colors are single-frequency. I'm asserting that most colors we see are not. Rainbow red is single-frequency. Most shades of red which we see are not. Rainbow blue is single-frequency. Most shades of blue which we see are not. Etc. You can have a red laser, but not a laser for most shades of red. You can't have things like a maroon laser. The only reason pink is special is because we do not consider it to be a shade of a rainbow color, which is a cultural thing.