SEEING COLOR
Editor’s Note: For her tenth grade accelerated chemistry course, Alex Leon (‘19) explores why and how humans see color.
As humans, we take the most amazing things for granted. We are tiny specs in this enormous universe, and yet we still walk this earth without batting an eye. Being human, our many abilities range from walking, communicating, breathing and seeing. Sight, one of the most interesting of our abilities, is used to interpret light as color. People see so many beautiful colors on the regular, from the purples and reds of a beautiful sunset or sunrise, to the yellows and oranges of fall trees. This is one of the most amazing human capabilities, but if you were to ask someone on the street why humans can see color, and how this process happens, they probably wouldn’t know.
Color is one of the few most used descriptors in society, yet not many stop to think how this complex concept may happen. When growing up, a child learns a few basic things; how to count, how to sing the alphabet, the names and sounds of a few animals, and colors. They learn that apples are red, or that the sun is yellow. What they don’t learn is that items don’t really have “color”, but that their surface absorbs some wavelengths and reflect others, and this is thanks to how wavelengths and the cones in the human eye work together. Of the large spectrum of wavelengths, the human eye can only pick up a tiny portion as color. Each wavelength on this visible light spectrum corresponds to a specific color we see, with violet and blue corresponding to shorter wavelengths and red corresponding to longer wavelengths. White light, like the light people pick up from the sun, is actually a combination of all of these colors. When light hits an item such as an apple, all other waves will be absorbed by the apple, while the waves that correspond to the color red would reflect, and bounce off of the apple. The human eye would then see this and send a message to the brain telling it that the color is red. When there is less light around there are less waves for the cones in the back of our eyes to pick up, making the colors seem muted or nonexistent.
Colors affect our lives every day in traffic lights, emergency signs, and poisonous animals. And although we have 3 cones in our eyes, that isn’t the case for all animals. It has been proven that there are animals with a different amount of cones in their eyes, allowing them to see a different range of colors, or in some cases, more colors that humans could even comprehend. For example, some insects can see ultraviolet light, which cannot be picked up by human eyes at all. With more people aware and interested in how these eye cones work, there could be a way to somehow see these unknown colors that human eyes can’t sense or help fund research to help find a cure to colorblindness, which is caused by cones not working correctly. With so many who don’t have the same privilege of seeing all the colors of a rainbow, more people should think about why we see color, and how important it really is.
Bibliography
Causes of Colour Blindness. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2017, from http://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/causes-of-colour-blindness/.
Pappas, S. (2010, April 29). How Do We See Color? Retrieved March 26, 2017, from http://www.livescience.com/32559-why-do-we-see-in-color.html.
Color is one of the few most used descriptors in society, yet not many stop to think how this complex concept may happen. When growing up, a child learns a few basic things; how to count, how to sing the alphabet, the names and sounds of a few animals, and colors. They learn that apples are red, or that the sun is yellow. What they don’t learn is that items don’t really have “color”, but that their surface absorbs some wavelengths and reflect others, and this is thanks to how wavelengths and the cones in the human eye work together. Of the large spectrum of wavelengths, the human eye can only pick up a tiny portion as color. Each wavelength on this visible light spectrum corresponds to a specific color we see, with violet and blue corresponding to shorter wavelengths and red corresponding to longer wavelengths. White light, like the light people pick up from the sun, is actually a combination of all of these colors. When light hits an item such as an apple, all other waves will be absorbed by the apple, while the waves that correspond to the color red would reflect, and bounce off of the apple. The human eye would then see this and send a message to the brain telling it that the color is red. When there is less light around there are less waves for the cones in the back of our eyes to pick up, making the colors seem muted or nonexistent.
Colors affect our lives every day in traffic lights, emergency signs, and poisonous animals. And although we have 3 cones in our eyes, that isn’t the case for all animals. It has been proven that there are animals with a different amount of cones in their eyes, allowing them to see a different range of colors, or in some cases, more colors that humans could even comprehend. For example, some insects can see ultraviolet light, which cannot be picked up by human eyes at all. With more people aware and interested in how these eye cones work, there could be a way to somehow see these unknown colors that human eyes can’t sense or help fund research to help find a cure to colorblindness, which is caused by cones not working correctly. With so many who don’t have the same privilege of seeing all the colors of a rainbow, more people should think about why we see color, and how important it really is.
Bibliography
Causes of Colour Blindness. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2017, from http://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/causes-of-colour-blindness/.
Pappas, S. (2010, April 29). How Do We See Color? Retrieved March 26, 2017, from http://www.livescience.com/32559-why-do-we-see-in-color.html.
