# Non-colored things that come in multiple colors **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 19, 2022, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048 "2022-01-19T10:52:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/1 "2022-01-19T10:52:20Z")
Not too long ago, I found that hydrogen, a nominally colorless gas, comes in multiple colors. The color indicates its source or how it’s produced. - black H comes from coal - grey H comes from methane/natural gas - green H electrolyzed from water using renewable electricity - blue H is from coal or natural gas, but the CO2 is captured and sequestered. (blue hydrogen, also called blue gas, does not actually exist, but its promoters pinkie-swear they’ll get around to sequestering all that CO2 any day now. Yeah, right…) There may be others that I can’t think of right now. Now I learn that [lies also come in multiple colors](https://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2022/01/word-of-the-week-blue-lie.html): - white lies – to help others - black lies – selfish - grey lies – both white and black at once - red lies – out of spite or vengeance - blue lies – to help one’s group (think police) - pink lies – to help get laid So anything else? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/2 "2022-01-19T12:25:02Z")
Russians and Belorussians? The latter means “white Russians,” called this not due to whiter skin, but from some complicated historical political-cultural designation, somewhat like “red” for communists…or consider the Irish song “My mother she was orange, and my father he was green.” I live in a “purple state,” in terms of political preferences…you could say states don’t “normally come in different colors.” ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/3 "2022-01-19T12:35:27Z")
Invisible unicorns come in pink. > **[Church of the Invisible Pink Unicorn - Magical Unicorn Life](https://magicalunicornlife.com/church-of-the-invisible-pink-unicorn/)** > > The Church of the Invisible Pink Unicorn is a parody religion founded by atheists. Who is the mysterious unicorn goddess they "worship" to satirize religions? [https://invisiblepinkunicorn.org/](https://invisiblepinkunicorn.org/) The existence of invisible unicorns of other colors is still a hotly debated topic, however. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/4 "2022-01-19T14:49:59Z")
Noise. > **[Colors of noise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_noise)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > In audio engineering, electronics, physics, and many other fields, the color of noise or noise spectrum refers to the power spectrum of a noise signal (a signal produced by a stochastic process). Different colors of noise have significantly different properties. For example, as audio signals they will sound different to human ears, and as images they will have a visibly different texture. Therefore, each application typically requires noise of a... ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/5 "2022-01-19T14:52:11Z")
Quarks and gluons come in red, green, and blue: > **[Color charge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_charge)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Color charge is a property of quarks and gluons that is related to the particles' strong interactions in the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). > The "color charge" of quarks and gluons is completely unrelated to the everyday meanings of color and charge. The term color and the labels red, green, and blue became popular simply because of the loose analogy to the primary colors. > Some particles have corresponding antiparticles. A particle with ... ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/6 "2022-01-19T14:53:27Z")
[Hackers wear hats](https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/hacker-hat-types) of white, grey, or black, depending on their motivation. Quarks come in red, green, and blue. Emotions are color coded. Envy = green, Anger = red, Cowardice = yellow, Sadness = blue. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/7 "2022-01-19T15:12:15Z")
Hospital emergency codes. California has standardized with: BLUE for adult medical emergency GRAY for a combative person GREEN for patient elopement ORANGE for a hazardous material spill/release PINK for infant abduction PURPLE for child abduction RED for fire SILVER for a person with a weapon and/or active shooter and/or hostage situation WHITE for pediatric medical emergency YELLOW for bomb threat Green sounds pretty romantic. Oh, wait, it’s not that kind of elopement… ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/8 "2022-01-19T16:54:25Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Russians and Belorussians? The latter means “white Russians,” called this not due to whiter skin, but from some complicated historical political-cultural designation, somewhat like “red” for communists…or consider the Irish song “My mother she was orange, and my father he was green.” Let’s say that in order to be multiple, there has to be at least three different colors. So those two are out. > [@](#): > > I live in a “purple state,” in terms of political preferences…you could say states don’t “normally come in different colors.” That one’s good: red, blue, and purple states. > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > The existence of invisible unicorns of other colors is still a hotly debated topic, however. Once you know for sure, then maybe we can count them. Blue shift and red shift are also out since there’s no other colored shifts. No one submitted that, it just occured to me. The other additions above are good. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/9 "2022-01-19T17:19:49Z")
Corporate marketing spin comes in several “colors”: **Greenwashing** = lying about support for environmental issues **Pinkwashing** = lying about support for LGBT issues (or breast cancer awareness) **Bluewashing** = lying about support for social/economic issues **Graywashing** = lying about support for the elderly ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/10 "2022-01-19T17:36:00Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > - black H comes from coal > - grey H comes from methane/natural gas > - green H electrolyzed from water using renewable electricity > - blue H is from coal or natural gas, but the CO2 is captured and sequestered. (blue hydrogen, also called blue gas, does not actually exist, but its promoters pinkie-swear they’ll get around to sequestering all that CO2 any day now. Yeah, right…) > > There may be others that I can’t think of right now. Yes, I thought there were more colors of hydrogen. It [turns out](https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/energy-explained/hydrogen-colour-spectrum) there’s also brown, pink, turquoise, yellow and white hydrogen. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2022, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/11 "2022-01-23T18:47:46Z")
As a grade schooler, our library had a reading program where there were color levels. Once you read x number of Green books then you could progress to Blue books, then Orange…\* BeforeI knew about the program, I was confused by a kid holding up a book with a purple cover and saying “This is a really good green book, it’s cool, you should read it.” . \*Even at that age it really bothered me that the colors weren’t in proper ‘Rainbow Order’. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/12 "2022-01-24T03:58:11Z")
@digs I’ll take a wild-ass guess and bet your grade school reading program with colors was the old SRA business. Being a Boomer, I saw first hand how school districts had to deal with a tsunami of kids. School districts would trot out all kinds of new ideas and availability of so many “test subjects” made PhD candidates practically wet their pants. SRA had color groups, with a number of stories in each color. After reading the story, the student had to answer questions. Now the student was supposed to slide a piece of paper down the right hand side of the question page, covering up the answers. Supposedly. The theory was, the kid would get an instant positive reinforcement if the newly revealed answer matched what the kid wrote. Hell, we all cheated. The teacher didn’t oversee any of this. The bright kids were racing through all the stories in a color group, to obtain bragging rights on the playground. That stuff eventually fizzled out. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/13 "2022-01-24T04:00:14Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > I’ll take a wild-ass guess and bet your grade school reading program with colors was the old SRA business. Ooooh, I remember those SRA boxes. Being an avid reader, and it being a tool that was built for self-guided reading, I, too, would rip though those. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/14 "2022-01-24T05:19:11Z")
My first grade class, the teacher had a color for everything. The days of the week were of colors on her giant calendar. Monday was red. It bugged me. But I swear in my head when I think of a day in the week I see her colors. BTW, white is not a color, it’s a lack of color. 🤭…sorry for the Thread shit ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/15 "2022-01-24T05:26:39Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > BTW, white is not a color, it’s a lack of color. 🤭…sorry for the Thread shit Isn’t black the not-a-color, while white is the compendium-of-all-colors? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/16 "2022-01-24T06:27:22Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Isn’t black the not-a-color, while white is the compendium-of-all-colors? Only if you’re mixing light. If you’re mixing paints, it’s the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/17 "2022-01-24T06:35:56Z")
Linguistically, _black_ and _white_ are color words. And for the purposes of this thread, they’ll count as colors too. But you need more than two color words applied to some colorless thing to count as multiple in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/18 "2022-01-24T07:55:47Z")
There’s black humour and blue comedy, are there any others in that area? > [@dtilque](#): > > Linguistically, _black_ and _white_ are color words. And for the purposes of this thread, they’ll count as colors too. That would be my take on it, as well. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/19 "2022-01-24T08:59:38Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > There’s black humour and blue comedy, are there any others in that area? Purple prose? green/red/black ink, black/white/grey magic… ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048/20 "2022-01-24T09:14:29Z")
My mom was a primary grades schoolteacher all her life. She divided the kids into redbirds and bluebirds according to their reading level, using colors instead of other designations like fast or slow, group one or two. The intention was to avoid stigmatizing kids by using a benign name, although they quickly figured out what the groups really were. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-colored-things-that-come-in-multiple-colors/958048.md?page=2)