From what I understand, humans can see red green and blue and everything in the middle. Some animals I’ve heard see more colors than us, so what’s to say that some things in nature are colors that we don’t see? Who’s to say that some apples are red? And instead a different color that we don’t have a name for because we can’t process it?
How can we tell if this “apple” is as a matter of fact “red”.
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When you shine light on an object, it reflects that light. However, it might not reflect *all* of the light, because some of it may be absorbed by the object. Using advanced equipment, we can tell exactly what wavelengths of light it absorbs and what wavelengths it reflects.
Color is defined by our own sensory apparatus, which can detect only a limited set of wavelengths of light, known as the visible spectrum. Two objects that reflect primarily red light in the visible spectrum but wildly different wavelengths outside the visible spectrum will both appear to us as red. If we could sense those other wavelengths, the objects would presumably look different in some way.
We could, if we wanted to, define an object’s color in terms of the entire spectrum of light, not just the visible portion, but this would be silly for two reasons. First, we don’t have any intuitive sense of what light “looks like” outside the visible spectrum. We know that other animals can see different colors, but we don’t know what that experience is like. Second, it would be impractical for most situations where color is used. If someone told you to bring them the “super-red fruit,” how would you know whether they meant an apple or a strawberry?
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