There are no colors that can mix into primary colors, but how can a color form if it’s not mixed with other colors?

Question

I don’t get it.

In: 3

Answer 1

So colors are different frequencies of visible light reflected off of a surface. The color you see is a combination of the visible light that the surface it is reflected off of didn’t absorb. From there, understand that [what your language uses to describe color changes how you perceive it](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00551/full) as well- if your language doesn’t have a word to describe pink, then you would have difficulty differentiating pink from light shades of red for example.

When you see a green leaf, that leaf isn’t mixing yellow and blue, it’s just green. Just as red, yellow, and blue exist on their own, so too do colors that you can create by mixing those three. The secondary colors can’t be mixed to make a primary color simply because the secondary colors are derivatives of the primary colors. That said, you can’t actually make every possible color out of just red, yellow, and blue and those aren’t even universal primary colors. Printers will use cyan, magenta, yellow, and black while television screens use red, green, and blue for example.

Answer 2

So colors are different frequencies of visible light reflected off of a surface. The color you see is a combination of the visible light that the surface it is reflected off of didn’t absorb. From there, understand that [what your language uses to describe color changes how you perceive it](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00551/full) as well- if your language doesn’t have a word to describe pink, then you would have difficulty differentiating pink from light shades of red for example.

When you see a green leaf, that leaf isn’t mixing yellow and blue, it’s just green. Just as red, yellow, and blue exist on their own, so too do colors that you can create by mixing those three. The secondary colors can’t be mixed to make a primary color simply because the secondary colors are derivatives of the primary colors. That said, you can’t actually make every possible color out of just red, yellow, and blue and those aren’t even universal primary colors. Printers will use cyan, magenta, yellow, and black while television screens use red, green, and blue for example.