Discussion»Questions»Science and Technology» In the west we see 7 colors in the visible spectrum. Do other cultures divide the spectrum up diffently getting a different number ?
Even the 7 number is iffy; it comes mostly from Newton who felt things should be in regular numbers, like 7. I mainly regard 6 colors (omitting indigo).
Other cultures may not have separate words for all the colors we recognize: cross-culturally, words for black, white, and red are the most common, followed by yellow and green. Other color terms tend to be derived from observing them in nature and rarer colors (like purple and orange) may not have distinct words at all in a given language.
I do know that in Russian, they differentiate between two shades of blue that we typically regard as being one color (i.e. "blue"). While there is some objectivity to color, it may be subjective depending on where the divisions between hues are drawn and which distinct hues are salient enough to have their own terms.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at April 13, 2018 12:51 PM MDT
Isaac Newton assigned names to the colors. He said he chose the number seven because there are seven days in a week. Yeah, scientists think like that a lot.
A few young people can see indigo as an actual color, but very few adults can see it. It is simply a space in the rainbow. Indigo is the color of eggplant/aubergine, "blue" jeans, and indian corn. The color does not exist in computer monitors or printers.
There is no color called "purple". It is an optical illusion caused by mixing red and blue.
Here's something to blow your mind. A percentage of women actually see MORE colors than anyone else. And men will never see those colors. This is because the XX-chromosome combination allows for a mutation so a small percentage of women may actually posses four color cones.
Neat, and also possible in men, Migration of pieces of the genetic code from one gene to another is a fairly common mutation. But it usually result in something useless because placement often matter in how genes are expressed.
Since you have to have 2 X chromosomes for this specific mutation ... a man would have to be XXY chromosome. Which is a very disorder called Klinefelter Syndrome.
Benedict Arnold 