How do Red, Green and Blue light combine into White light without needing the rest of the Visual Spectrum?

Question

As well, does combining Cyan, Magenta and Yellow light give you White light?

In: Physics

Answer 1

Humans are only able to distinguish three colors, red blue and green. True white is composed equally of all colors, but since we can only see three, we can’t distinguish the color red/blue/green from true white.

Other animals with more types of cone cells would easily be able to distinguish red/blue/green from other colors. There is no animal that has an infinite number of cone types, so with enough types of light you would eventually be able to fool even sharpest eyed animal with a “fake” white light.