You see colour using three different kinds of cones in our eyes, and these cones can be either red, blue, or green. So where does yellow come in? Green consists of yellow and blue – but how would you only see yellow and not the blue that would make it green?
In: Biology
The cells in your eye have fairly broad sensitivity ranges.
You don’t have a cell dedicated to “yellow” at 580nm but you do have the M and L type cone cells that can both detect this range.
Incoming yellow light triggers both cells at a certain ratio, and your brain interprets this as “yellow.”
This is also why TVs and printers can fake yellow without actual yellow die/light – they just have to trigger the two cones in the same ratio.
Latest Answers