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If you go down this line of questioning, then there's another reason "white" probably doesn't fit as an answer. The sun doesn't emit "white photons", we simply

If you go down this line of questioning, then there's another reason "white" probably doesn't fit as an answer. The sun doesn't emit "white photons", we simply perceive the combination of photons of the visible light spectrums as white.

pbhjpbhj 8y ago
Oh yes absolutely, and it's not the current sun, it's the 8 minutes ago sun, and the photons may have spent a lot longer getting to you maybe 10-100 thousands years bouncing around in the sun before it escapes, shoots through Space, maybe bounces again and ends it's journey flexing a molecule in your eye. It's mind blowing to me.
- mncharity 8y ago
  > It's mind blowing :) When people watch this[1], and I'm standing next to them, they'll often ask about the ripples. But if they were watching it alone, there isn't an easy way to do that. Someone did an art project, where you sit and watch an interesting drama video. But why was it interesting? There's an eye tracker, and the video is a graph of scenes, like an old "choose your own adventure" story. So if you're interested in character A... the video explores/emphasizes character A. AR/VR is coming. With eye tracking (eventually... patents). So... Imagine science education that's consistently mind blowing, rather than boring. What might that be like? Though a cautionary note: there's apparently a problem of students, who have consistently had excellent teachers, clearly and motivationally presenting material, reaching college without the skills or inclination to themselves wrestle with a body of knowledge and distill understanding. Another opportunity for improvement. :) [1] stop-motion animation with individual molecules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSCX78-8-q0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSCX78-8-q0
mncharity 8y ago
Hmm, I'd like to follow up more on the education aspect than on the Sun bit... Imagine a conversation with a five-year old. "What are you doing? Making this Arduino blink an LED light. What color is the light?"... Now imagine responding to that five-year old with a discourse on spectra and photons. Yes, the misconceptions in such discourse can be fun and amazing. A recurring response from non-astronomy physical-sciences graduate students is something like "The Sun doesn't have a color; it's lots of different colors; it's rainbow colored". But maybe I've long missed the interesting question. Why is stuff like this even a candidate to be said? Does the Sun seem so alien or aphysical that normal experience of objects doesn't apply? Are concepts of color fragilely situational? ("Bananas are yellow, but wow, mangoes? Do mangoes even have a color? Photons mumble spectra mumble."?) Are answers just associational mind dumps? (Before the "five-year old" was emphasized, a recurring response was a brain dump of random ideas about color and about the Sun, followed by "Did I get it right?".) Just what is going on here? There's seems an opportunity to think less superficially about this than I have done. Yay. Thanks!

pbhjpbhj 8y ago

Oh yes absolutely, and it's not the current sun, it's the 8 minutes ago sun, and the photons may have spent a lot longer getting to you maybe 10-100 thousands years bouncing around in the sun before it escapes, shoots through Space, maybe bounces again and ends it's journey flexing a molecule in your eye. It's mind blowing to me.

mncharity 8y ago
> It's mind blowing :) When people watch this[1], and I'm standing next to them, they'll often ask about the ripples. But if they were watching it alone, there isn't an easy way to do that. Someone did an art project, where you sit and watch an interesting drama video. But why was it interesting? There's an eye tracker, and the video is a graph of scenes, like an old "choose your own adventure" story. So if you're interested in character A... the video explores/emphasizes character A. AR/VR is coming. With eye tracking (eventually... patents). So... Imagine science education that's consistently mind blowing, rather than boring. What might that be like? Though a cautionary note: there's apparently a problem of students, who have consistently had excellent teachers, clearly and motivationally presenting material, reaching college without the skills or inclination to themselves wrestle with a body of knowledge and distill understanding. Another opportunity for improvement. :) [1] stop-motion animation with individual molecules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSCX78-8-q0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSCX78-8-q0

mncharity 8y ago

Hmm, I'd like to follow up more on the education aspect than on the Sun bit... Imagine a conversation with a five-year old. "What are you doing? Making this Arduino blink an LED light. What color is the light?"... Now imagine responding to that five-year old with a discourse on spectra and photons. Yes, the misconceptions in such discourse can be fun and amazing. A recurring response from non-astronomy physical-sciences graduate students is something like "The Sun doesn't have a color; it's lots of different colors; it's rainbow colored". But maybe I've long missed the interesting question. Why is stuff like this even a candidate to be said? Does the Sun seem so alien or aphysical that normal experience of objects doesn't apply? Are concepts of color fragilely situational? ("Bananas are yellow, but wow, mangoes? Do mangoes even have a color? Photons mumble spectra mumble."?) Are answers just associational mind dumps? (Before the "five-year old" was emphasized, a recurring response was a brain dump of random ideas about color and about the Sun, followed by "Did I get it right?".) Just what is going on here? There's seems an opportunity to think less superficially about this than I have done. Yay. Thanks!