Is black really a colour ? Or just the absence of light ?
Black is just the absence of light really. It sort of seems to be a colour to us because we can differentiate it from other colours, but a black object is actually an object that absorbs all colours of the visible spectrum, that’s all frequencies of light. So say this black microphone absorbs red, blue green, all of the colors, so to us it just looks like the absence of colour, which is black. So when we shut our eyes we see black as no light’s getting in.
The opposite of this would be white. A white object reflects all light and when we can see all frequencies of visible light, they combine to make sort of a white colour, although colour would be a slightly misleading word.
Dear Saeed
Black indeed is the absence of (visible) light.
Regards
Dear Prof. Saeed,
All colors are just the ratios between absorbency and reflectance of various wavelengths of light which human eye can perceive (visualize). Therefore, if white means complete reflectance, black also is considered as a complete absorbency.
Best regards
SM Najim
Dear Salah, Shall we first distinguish between black as a colour and darkness as absence of light. Darkness is a situation where light is scanty or absent, therefore we do not see clearly. However if take a black object and put it in front of you at the middle of the day (Shining sun), it will look black
Dear
Black or darkness is absence of colour, Sometime light is called a white shade.
Thank
Marius
The absence of light is perceived as darkness/Black. When we apply black paint or color to any surface, it does not reflect any light that falls on it, as it absorbs all of it. Where as colored objects absorb a range of visible spectrum and the part of spectrum which it does not absorb(gets reflected) is the color we perceive. As black does not reflect any spectrum of visible light our eyes perceive it as absence of color/light, hence black.
When we think of light as being clear, it in fact contains the entire color spectrum. When light hits an object, depending on the chemical makeup of the object, some colors are absorbed, while others are reflected back to the human eye. The reflected color is the color that we see. White objects reflect back all of the color spectrum which blends together to give us "white" while black objects absorb all of the color, and do not reflect back any of the color spectrum which gives us "black". This is why it's black at night..with little or no light to reflect off of objects.So black is a colour
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