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New Theories / Re: All my ideas in one basket.
« on: 23/10/2015 17:05:23 »
The flaw with your theory is that you assume light has a color, when it doesn't.
Inside your eyes are these things called "cone cells" and "rod cells" which act as photoreceptors. Rod cells are in the peripheral vision of the eye and are 100 times more sensitive than cone cells, so sensitive that they can respond to a single photon; but they cannot distinguish color. Cone cells come in 3 kinds, S-cones, M-cones, and L-cones. S-cones respond to wavelengths between ~400-500nm. M-cones respond to wavelengths between ~400nm-675nm, and L-cones respond to wavelengths between ~400-700nm.
S-cones are what we perceive as blue light, M-cones are what we perceive as green light, and L-cones are what we perceive as red light. The peak responsiveness of these cones is at ~420nm, ~534nm, and ~564nm respectively.
Combining waves is done by adding the waves together. When 2 positive or 2 negative peaks hit each other, the absolute value of the peak increases. When a positive and a negative peak hit each other, they cancel out.
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So as you can see, white is not the combination (read: addition) of red, green, and blue (all subjective) waves of light; it's the presence of all these waves of light. If you actually combined them, you'd just get a single wave that stimulates one type of your cone cells more than the others, which would probably just appear orange.
Inside your eyes are these things called "cone cells" and "rod cells" which act as photoreceptors. Rod cells are in the peripheral vision of the eye and are 100 times more sensitive than cone cells, so sensitive that they can respond to a single photon; but they cannot distinguish color. Cone cells come in 3 kinds, S-cones, M-cones, and L-cones. S-cones respond to wavelengths between ~400-500nm. M-cones respond to wavelengths between ~400nm-675nm, and L-cones respond to wavelengths between ~400-700nm.
S-cones are what we perceive as blue light, M-cones are what we perceive as green light, and L-cones are what we perceive as red light. The peak responsiveness of these cones is at ~420nm, ~534nm, and ~564nm respectively.
Combining waves is done by adding the waves together. When 2 positive or 2 negative peaks hit each other, the absolute value of the peak increases. When a positive and a negative peak hit each other, they cancel out.
+
=
So as you can see, white is not the combination (read: addition) of red, green, and blue (all subjective) waves of light; it's the presence of all these waves of light. If you actually combined them, you'd just get a single wave that stimulates one type of your cone cells more than the others, which would probably just appear orange.
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