Color (nonfiction)

Color wheel by Goethe, 1809.

Color is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, blue, yellow, etc.

Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors.

Color categories and physical specifications of color are also associated with objects or materials based on their physical properties such as light absorption, reflection, or emission spectra.

Because perception of color stems from the varying spectral sensitivity of different types of cone cells in the retina to different parts of the spectrum, colors may be defined and quantified by the degree to which they stimulate these cells.

These physical or physiological quantifications of color, however, do not fully explain the psychophysical perception of color appearance.

In the News

March 6, 2006: Steganographic analysis of the Superimposed Fraunhofer stamp reveals "seven hundred to eight hundred kilobytes" of previously unknown Gnomon algorithm functions related to color. These functions will quickly find application in the detection and prevention of crimes against light.
Chromo-Pee Olympics champion urinates five distinct hues.
Light from 1943 and color wheel from 1809: can their long-distance love survive?