# Can you explain the color black to me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705 "2013-07-16T22:31:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/21 "2013-07-17T04:38:19Z")
Newsprint looks gray from a distance but up close it is obviously black & white. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/22 "2013-07-17T06:11:58Z")
Gray: Look at the first optical illusion in this article: > **[5 Optical Illusions That Prove You Can't Trust Your Own Mind](https://www.cracked.com/article_20432_5-illusions-that-prove-your-sense-reality-full-s232125.html)** > > These images are actually exposing glaring gaps in our brain's fragile sense of reality. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/23 "2013-07-17T06:22:52Z")
**Fact:** The color black attracts more pet hair than any other color. It’s true. Google it. /tongue in cheek ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/24 "2013-07-17T06:36:42Z")
I’ve always found it a bit misleading to say black is merely the lack of colour, or that it’s not a “real” colour. It’s true that black, like white doesn’t have a hue. But it’s still a visual phenomenon, made by the brain, just like red, say. And while what is black is relative to the rest of the visual field, [so is everything else](http://www.psychworld.com/optical-illusion-of-the-week-blue-yellow-gray-2011-01). For instance, there’s nothing nonsensical about saying that black is your favourite colour. The choice of noun may be a bit off, but there isn’t really a simple alternative in English. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/25 "2013-07-17T08:44:36Z")
> [@MonkeyMensch](#): > > Actually, gray is a pale black. White is bright grey, or very, very bright black. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/26 "2013-07-17T09:14:25Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > White is bright grey, or very, very bright black. Which means a white bucket is a whiter shade of pail. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/27 "2013-07-17T09:32:23Z")
What we ‘see’ as white may not be white at all. Bach in the days when we had monochrome TVs, any white material was actually blue. Those washing powder ads with a line full of white washing - all blue. The white hospital sheets - blue. Anything really white, showed up as grey on the B&W TV screen. I watched a gut mixing white paint to spray a car - he added quite a lot of blue, and some red pigment. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/28 "2013-07-17T11:31:55Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Think about what you are seeing. It is light being reflected from a source, so black is what you get when no light is being reflected, and white is what you get when all light, the whole spectrum, is reflected. If black is what you get when no light is reflected, how come I can still see my pants? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/29 "2013-07-17T12:23:56Z")
> [@JWT\_Kottekoe](#): > > It’s also worth noting that dark yellow is brown. Same color, just not as bright. It is all about the contrast. It’s my understanding that brown is, by definition, not just dark yellow and must also contain red, at least. Am I wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/30 "2013-07-17T13:04:23Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > It’s my understanding that brown is, by definition, not just dark yellow and must also contain red, at least. > > Am I wrong? I also thought that brown was dark orange. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/31 "2013-07-17T13:11:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That said, for pigments, there really is such a thing as absolute white and absolute black. A true white surface will reflect 100% of the light incident on it, and a true black surface will absorb 100% of the light incident on it. Yeah, how much more black could a surface be?The answer is none. None more black. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/32 "2013-07-17T13:14:26Z")
I remember playing around with color on my monitor and finding that although pure dark yellow was clearly brown, it was a fairly unattractive shade. Most browns that you see have at least some red. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/33 "2013-07-17T14:47:02Z")
The words we use for color are based on human observations a long time ago and don’t necessarily map perfectly with current understanding of electromagnetic radiation. Orange is light brown, and pink is light red. These color pairs have analogous relationships to the relationship between light blue and dark blue, but English speakers split the first two pairs as representing fundamental differences in color but not the last. All forms of blue are considered blue, but a pink shirt cannot generally be described as a “red shirt”, and a grocery store that said that it sold high quality brown-colored citrus fruit might not get many customers. However, the Russian language distinguishes голубой and синий. In the opposite direction, in Japanese, the sky and grass are considered the same color, namely 青 (ao). Fascinating introduction here: [Blue–green distinction in language - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distinction_of_blue_and_green_in_various_languages) ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/34 "2013-07-17T15:32:14Z")
> [@rEVOLutionary](#): > > Black is apparently the lack of any light (color). > > If you have black, and add white (all colors), why does it turn grey instead of white? If you have no color and add every color, wouldn’t you end up with every color (white)? > > How does that work? One aspect of that has been left out. Take a black jacket. Shine a strong WHITE light (eg an LED torch) on it. Is it black ,grey or white ? no its likely purple , red or blue. But it could perhaps be white. Yep a black thing can be white ! (diamond dust appears black.). Your black jacket is not changing colour because of the light, the true colour is being REVEALED.. by ramping the brightness up with the really strong lamp. The moon is covered in dark rock. Did you know that ? its true. Moon rocks are dark. It should look black. Well no, we only perceive moon rocks as black when they are on earth, we can see they are actually white. Look up at the moon, is it black ? No its coloured by the reflective crystals of the dark rock.. The sunlight is reflecting off , and while that is only 8 % (at most) of the sunlight hitting it and toward the earth, when viewed by us that 8 % is still strong, in the dark of night, to be considered white. Grey is highly subjective, basically when there are brighter objects in view, a poorly lit white thing may be perceived as grey. This is one reason your brain will also correct for this and assume that a grey thing, that is in a shadow, is actually white. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/35 "2013-07-17T15:47:52Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > Grey is highly subjective, basically when there are brighter objects in view, a poorly lit white thing may be perceived as grey. This is one reason your brain will also correct for this and assume that a grey thing, that is in a shadow, is actually white. Again, note this happens with all hue/saturation/brightness, as I pointed out with the optical illusion posted earlier. Something can look red, say, when in fact it is reflecting just grey light, because your brain is compensating for the hue of the light source. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/36 "2013-07-17T15:49:42Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > I also thought that brown was dark orange. I just tested this in a graphics program - creating coloured squares using an RGB model, then decreasing their brightness using the HSL model - yellow dims through all shades of muddy olive drab - none of which is really very distinctively brown. Orange dims through clay brick colour, then lots of very recognisable browns. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/37 "2013-07-17T16:01:56Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > In the opposite direction, in Japanese, the sky and grass are considered the same color, namely 青 (ao). Not really. Modern Japanese does make the distinction, and uses 緑 or グリーン (literally “green” from English) for green　. There are a number of words such as 青少年 (a “blue/green” youth) which still carry the former meaning, but any references nowadays to actual colors clearly separate the colors. It’s well-known and often cited that traffic signals are called 青 instead of 緑, but what is not as well known is that Japanese often wonder why. A google search in Japanese show hundreds of thousand of hits for various phrasings of the question of why are the signals are called “blue” 青 when they are “green” 緑. In the original laws, they were called “green” 緑, but that apparently was changed at some point to be blue 青 and there are a number of theories as to the reason. I’ll let any serious scholar provide the definitive answer, but I did find some interesting sites, including this professor who says it is called blue because the signals are blue. Or rather, they are closer to blue than the one in the West. Although his site is in Japanese, he has a [CIE color space](https://p.twimg.com/AejyzP8CAAIPNWz.jpg) showing where the international colors are and where the Japanese traffic signal is. He believes that the traffic signals will gradually become more similar to the color used in other countries. Even if that’s the case, I doubt that the terminology will change. We still “dial” numbers with our cell phones, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/38 "2013-07-17T20:10:14Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > **Fact:** The color black attracts more pet hair than any other color. > > It’s true. Google it. > /tongue in cheek Someone with a black cat and a white sweater might disagree with this statement. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/39 "2013-07-19T04:05:41Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > Newsprint looks gray from a distance but up close it is obviously black & white. And read all over. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705/40 "2013-07-19T04:15:55Z")
I think I red that joke wrong. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-explain-the-color-black-to-me/663705.md?page=3)