# What colour am I seeing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 8, 2000, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260 "2000-11-08T07:41:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stimpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/779978/32.png) [@Stimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stimpy)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/1 "2000-11-08T07:41:13Z")
Guess this a pretty stoopid question so haven’t posted to GQ. And bear with me as I’m not sure how to ask it… Basically, I see blue, you see blue, I see red, you see red, but when I point at something red and say ‘this is red’ you point at it and say ‘yes it is!’. But isn’t it possible that you’re red is my yellow. We’d never know, because red is red to you… anyone getting this? ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/2 "2000-11-08T08:09:43Z")
😕 Do you mean, do we all label colours with the same name? Preschool should have taken care of that, if that’s what you mean. The only uncertainty would be regarding what to call non-basic colours: peachy oranges, reddish purples, greenish blues, brownish yellows, etc. Is it salmon or terra cotta? Rose madder or fuschia? Teal or aqua? Mustard or …? You get the idea. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/3 "2000-11-08T08:22:33Z")
Stimpy, you are correct. There is no way to tell **for certain** if two people who agree that something is a particular shade of red actually **perceive** the same color. But because there is no way to tell, it doesn’t make any practical difference. I’m pretty sure this doesn’t really belong in IMHO, either. No biggie, though. I’m sure our long-suffering and dedicated moderator will fix that if appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Stimpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/779978/32.png) [@Stimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stimpy)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/4 "2000-11-08T08:24:47Z")
no, sorry i knew this was going to be difficult to explain. okay… we ‘see’ the same colour as far as we know - red to me is red to you - but isn’t it possible that i see yellow but know it as red? not colour blindness but colour differentness. i’m pretty sure there’s no way you could prove any of this, but my question remains, is it possible to see different colours but know them to be the same??? i’ve confused you even more now haven’t i? ---
**Author:** ![Stimpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/779978/32.png) [@Stimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stimpy)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/5 "2000-11-08T08:32:55Z")
is there a way though? if we can discover that dogs only see in 2d and that the eye is made of - what was it, cones and rods? - canwe not find out if some people are living in a psychedelic world completely natural to them? ---
**Author:** ![RonA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@RonA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RonA)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/6 "2000-11-08T15:16:46Z")
I think I understand what you’re saying: you and I look at the same object, and you see a different color than I do, but we both call it “red”. We both say the sky is “blue”, but I see it as a different color than you do. I have heard this before, but I don’t know if it has been proven, or if it can be. But dogs only see 2D??? Is that true? Are you saying that dogs don’t have depth perception? But how can that be? How can they run and catch a ball or a frisbee? When they jump over a ditch, how do they know how far to jump? I don’t see (!) how they can do all that without 3D vision. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/7 "2000-11-08T15:35:08Z")
Dogs can see in 3D for the same reason that humans can see in 3D. Two eyes. I think maybe Stimpy was alluding to arguments that dogs are color blind, although I don’t think that has been proven either. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/8 "2000-11-08T15:40:50Z")
As an artist, I’ve often wondered about this. There’s so much variation among human physiology in virtually every respect, why should color perception be any different. Why do you think people have different “favorite” colors or color combinations? A friend of mine can’t stand seeing blue and green together, but I love that combination. I suspect that his blue and green are different from my blue and green. But the bottom line is that we really don’t know what another person is seeing. By the way - Helen Keller once said that she couldn’t imagine a world without color. ---
**Author:** ![activgurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@activgurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/activgurl)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/9 "2000-11-09T01:33:11Z")
I had a yellow Fruit of the Loom shirt that I wore to work. A coworker would always call it my “green” shirt. I thought he was just bullshitting, but then I wondered if he saw green where I saw yellow. Chartruese? ---
**Author:** ![Sue\_Jo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sue\_Jo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Jo)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2000, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/10 "2000-11-09T21:56:41Z")
Do a search on General Questions for “color”, Subject Only, Any Date. I know I read a lot of threads there with a lot more answers. This actually a GQ question, so don’t be surprised if it gets moved there before long. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/11 "2000-11-10T03:59:04Z")
I’ve always wondered about this, too. I think that under certain circumstances it can happen, as well. Somewhere on this board a while back, someone was relating the experiences of an older relative who, due to cataract surgery, got an artifical lens put into one eye. The lens (unlike our natural ones) was transparent to ultraviolet, so the person could see farther into that end of the spectrum in one eye. I’d imagine that would make things look a little different. They might agree with you on what color something is, but it wouldn’t look the same to them as to you. Not long ago, there was a show about raptors on PBS, hosted by David Attenborough. One of the birds discussed was known to see into the ultraviolet, and scientists weren’t sure what benefit this would have. Eventually, someone put two and two together, and realised that its prey’s urine flouresced under UV. The bird could thus visually track its prey through the grass by the urine markings it left. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/12 "2000-11-10T04:06:33Z")
About the dogs - I went to the open house at the vet school in Quebec, and one of the vets there told me that evidence shows that dogs dont see “black and white”, they see “blue and yellow”. Hence, the part of the spectrum that fits between about 450nm and about 600nm. I’ve often wondered the same thing as the OP, though. I assume people just haven’t come up with a method to determine this. The only “universal” definition of colour (one that would apply to anyone) seems to be what wavelengths can be perceived. ---
**Author:** ![Qwisp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qwisp/32/397_2.png) [@Qwisp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwisp)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/13 "2000-11-10T06:51:56Z")
It seems to me that if people saw in totally different colors. We would see people dressing and decorating in colors that would be totally garish combinations. I supposed we could all see the same colors with different intensities though. ---
**Author:** ![Carina42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Carina42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carina42)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/14 "2000-11-10T10:51:59Z")
I’ve also wondered this - I’m a painting contractor, so it’s often relevant. I think we probably interpret colours the same - what I call red is pretty much what everyone else calls red. There are definitely differences in perception when it comes to more subtle, complex colours. Paint containing green, blue, and black tint will appear to some as merely grey, to others blue, & yet another grey-green, and so on. This may be a learned process. I can look at a paint colour and fairly accurately guess what colourants have been combined to make that colour. FWIW, I’ve noticed that men seem to have a harder time seeing subtle differences in hue and tone. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@The\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Bean)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/15 "2000-11-10T17:24:49Z")
None of you has a clue. First off, this is not a “Humble Opinion” question, so you will not find answers pretending it it. It’s a General Questions forum topic. There are at least 7 better threads there, which none of you bothered to look up. \*\* [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=45763](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=45763) How many colors can the human eye see? [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=38714](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=38714) How do we know what colors animals see? Are any creatures able to see more colors? [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=33318](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=33318) Colorblind animals? [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=28171](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=28171) Are horses color blind? [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=15793](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=15793) Cats colorblind or not? [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=14470](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=14470) Do all people see colors the same? [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=12622](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=12622) Do we see in different colors??? Now all of you go over there and leave “Humble Opinions” out of it. ---
**Author:** ![popokis5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@popokis5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/popokis5)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2000, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-colour-am-i-seeing/40260/16 "2000-11-11T01:55:57Z")
I agree with the bean. Plus this question has been done, done, done.