Blue (nonfiction)

Examples of the color blue.

Blue is one of the three primary colors of pigments in painting and traditional color theory, as well as in the RGB color model. It lies between violet and green on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when observing light with a dominant wavelength between approximately 450 and 495 nanometers. Most blues contain a slight mixture of other colors; azure contains some green, while ultramarine contains some violet. The clear daytime sky and the deep sea appear blue because of an optical effect known as Rayleigh scattering. An optical effect called Tyndall scattering explains blue eyes. Distant objects appear more blue because of another optical effect called atmospheric perspective.

Blue has been an important color in art and decoration since ancient times. The semi-precious stone lapis lazuli was used in ancient Egypt for jewellery and ornament and later, in the Renaissance, to make the pigment ultramarine, the most expensive of all pigments. In the eighth century Chinese artists used cobalt blue to color fine blue and white porcelain. In the Middle Ages, European artists used it in the windows of Cathedrals. Europeans wore clothing colored with the vegetable dye woad until it was replaced by the finer indigo from America. In the 19th century, synthetic blue dyes and pigments gradually replaced mineral pigments and synthetic dyes. Dark blue became a common color for military uniforms and later, in the late 20th century, for business suits. Because blue has commonly been associated with harmony, it was chosen as the color of the flags of the United Nations and the European Union.

Surveys in the US and Europe show that blue is the color most commonly associated with harmony, faithfulness, confidence, distance, infinity, the imagination, cold, and sometimes with sadness. In US and European public opinion polls it is the most popular color, chosen by almost half of both men and women as their favorite color. The same surveys also showed that blue was the color most associated with the masculine, just ahead of black, and was also the color most associated with intelligence, knowledge, calm and concentration.

Fiction cross-reference

• Crimes against light
• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Color (nonfiction)
• Light (nonfiction)

External links:

• Blue @ Wikipedia