eli5: Why is it impossible to imagine new colors?
In: 562
Our brains kind of imagine non-existing colors all the time. Pink and brown don’t exist in the way we think of them. We can’t see a mix of green and red, so it comes out brown in our brains. Pink is a mix of red and purple light.
“Light consists of electromagnetic waves, and colour depends on the wavelength. If colours were simply a naming scheme for wavelengths then pink is not one, because it is made up of more than one wavelength (it’s actually a mix of red and purple light). If you took a laser and tuned it across the visible wavelengths, from infrared through to ultraviolet, you would not pass pink on the way.”
https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/is-pink-a-real-colour/
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