How does color work. I know how light gets absorbed and reflected depending on the color of the thing, but that does not explain HOW things have color.
Like. I can have a red house, red clothes and my blood is red. But all those things are VERY different things. What properties do all of them have that makes them red? How does my red look red ? Molecules? And we can mix colors too. What specificly is mixed?
What quality in red paint is also present in my blood?
I am not the best at explaining, but what I want to know is what do same colored things have in common that makes us see them as the same color despite being very different kinds of things.
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While others have explained the physics well, the other half is your brain.
Your brain makes everything up, and often lies to you. Color is *entirely* subjective. There is no objective truth to color perception, despite being able to break the light down into different intensities of different wavelengths. My red and your red might “look” completely different to us, or they might be similar. We only have other red things that we call red, and it’s all relative and things we learn as a kid.
Similarly, you can’t imagine a new color that you or anyone else has never seen before. It will *only* be a mix of colors we already have. People who are colorblind can be told that this is red and that is green, but they have no way of understanding the difference or even what it “should” look like.
Your brain lies about what your eyes see in lots of ways, in fact. It’s a fascinating delve.
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