Research of Color Theory

Research of Color Theory

Color fills our world with beauty. We delight in the colors of a magnificent sunset and in the bright red and golden-yellow leaves of autumn. We are charmed by gorgeous flowering plants and the brilliantly colored arch of a rainbow. We also use color in various ways to add pleasure and interest to our lives. For example, many people choose the colors of their clothes carefully and decorate their homes with colors that create beautiful, restful, or exciting effects. By their selection and arrangement of colors, artists try to make their paintings more realistic or expressive.

Color serves as a means of communication. In sports, different colored uniforms show which team the players are on. On streets and highways, a red traffic light tells drivers to stop, and a green light tells them to go. On a map printed in color, blue may stand for rivers and other bodies of water, green for forests and parks, and black for highways and other roads.

We use the names of colors in many common expressions to describe moods and feelings. For example, we say a sad person feels blue and a jealous one is green with envy. We say an angry person sees red. A coward may be called yellow.

Color plays an important part in nature. The brilliant colors of many kinds of blossoms attract insects. The insects may pollinate the flowers, causing the plants to develop seeds and fruits. Colorful fruits attract many kinds of fruit-eating animals, which pass the seeds of the fruits in their droppings. The seeds may then sprout wherever the droppings fall. In this way, fruit-bearing plants may be spread naturally to new areas.

The colors of some animals help them attract mates. For example, a peacock spreads his brightly colored feathers when courting a female. The colors of many other animals help them escape from enemies. For example, Arctic hares have brownish fur in summer. In winter, their fur turns white, making it difficult for enemies to see the hares in the snow.

Although we speak of seeing colors or objects, we do not actually see them. Instead, we see the light that objects reflect or give off. Our eyes absorb this light and change it into electrochemical signals. The signals travel through nerves to the brain, which interprets them as colored images. However, there is much that scientists still do not know about how our eyes and brain ...

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...response mechanism signals either red or green, and the other signals either yellow or blue. A third mechanism signals the level of lightness. The brain interprets these signals, producing our sense of color. The opponent color theory explains many aspects of color vision better than the three-component theory does. For example, the opponent color theory provides an explanation for the fact that we see no such colors as reddish-green or yellowish-blue.

Recent theories combine ideas from the three-component and opponent color theories to describe the various stages of color vision. In the first stage of color vision, three types of cones in the retina absorb light and generate electrical signals, as proposed by the three-component theory. During the second stage of color vision, nerves in the eyes and brain create three new signals, which correspond to those described by the opponent color theory. The nerve signals may pass through further stages before the brain finally interprets them as the sensation of color.

Works Cited

Contributor: Gunter Wyszecki, Dr. Eng., Former Director of the Institute of Optics, National Research Council of Canada.

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