Did you know that there is a whole science of color? It is called colorimetry. This science deals with everything related to color: from measurement methods and color theory in art to electromagnetic radiation and the physiology of color perception with our eyes.
But enough terms! Are you ready to learn something interesting? The average person distinguishes about a million flowers. However, there is a condition under which some women can see almost 100 million flowers! Yes, just that much! They see 100 times more colors than the average person. So the next time your wife will argue with you about the color of your shoes, you will know why.
And one more curious fact: did you know that night vision devices are usually green, because our eyes can see more shades of green than any other color?
Here are 25 amazing facts about colors that you never knew existed!
25. The sun is actually white and shines with white light, if you look at it from space. Just when the sunlight passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, it takes on a yellow hue.
24. “Impossible” colors, also called “forbidden” colors, are colors that are too complex for the human eye. We cannot see them because of the principles of perception and processing of colors in the brain, which do not allow us to distinguish between certain shades. Try to imagine yellow-blue or red-green color, and you will see that we can not only see them, but also imagine them.
23. Most people see colorful dreams, but those who grew up in the era of black and white cinema are more likely to see black and white dreams.
According to a 2008 study by scientists at the Scottish University of Dundee, adults older than 55 years old who grew up during black and white television often have black and white dreams, while younger participants who grew up in the era of color cinema and television practically always have colorful dreams. The same results were shown by studies conducted in 2011 by the American Psychological Association.
22. Horses have the largest eyes of all land animals. And they, by the way, see perfectly at night. True, unfortunately, they have dichromatic (two-color) vision, which means that they can see only two of the three primary colors.
21. People who do not distinguish colors (suffering from color blindness) tend to see better in the dark.
20. German Formula 1 race cars first became silver in 1934. Is it a legend or a reality, but, they say, when the designers prepared their racing cars for the upcoming races, they apparently didn’t take into account something, and during the inspection the day before the start of the competition it turned out that the German cars are one kilogram more than the permissible norm.
The team could not be allowed to race, so the enterprising head of the Mercedes-Benz team ordered to clean the car from the recently applied paint up to bare metal, which was done by the mechanics the night before the start. By the way, one of the Mercedes cars then won the race. The color remained silver, and the Mercedes-Benz team has since been called the Silver Arrows.
19. Night vision goggles use green phosphor, because the human eye is able to distinguish more shades of green than any other color.
18. The matador’s cloak does not have to be red, because the bulls do not distinguish colors. They say that a red cloak is needed in order to hide drops of blood from the audience (when the bull is killed).
17. Israeli chemistry professor Fernando Patolsky of Tel Aviv University has created a "rape straw." This is a small device that looks like a regular straw for stirring a drink, which is equipped with a sensor that mixes a drop of the drink with the test solution. As a result of a chemical reaction, the drink becomes cloudy or its color changes (depending on the preparation used).
As you know, attackers add the so-called rape drugs to their victims' drinks, which makes them more calm and even lose their memory for a short time.
16. Markers are usually yellow, because they do not leave traces (do not obscure the selected areas) on photocopies.
15. The United States uses people with color blindness to recognize camouflage. This is because they perceive certain colors in a way that people with normal vision are not capable.
14. According to studies, red-haired people during surgery may require 20% more anesthesia than holders of a different hair color.
13. In the Middle Ages, fabric dyers dyed the material either red or blue. Each of these two groups had their own guilds, which forbade their members to dye fabric in opposite colortherefore, purple clothes were rare at the time.
12. Cheddar cheese is only ivory or yellowish, because it is stained with the natural dye of annatto. In fact, its color changes depending on the time of year and the diet of cows whose milk was used for its production. Farmers began to tint the cheese to avoid color variations of the cheese.
11. In the 1980s, scientists demonstrated that the enzyme contained in green coffee beans can change the blood of any group into the blood of group 0, whose owners are considered universal donors.
10. The colors of fire hydrants can be used to determine water flow and pressure.
9. In 1962, the "solid" color of the Crayola wax crayon was renamed to "peach."
8. The colored dots on carbonated beverage cans located near the nutrient information are the colors that were used in the production. Thanks to this, the company can identify a defective printer and fix problems with it if one of the dots faded or is missing.
7. Upon retiring, Emerson Moser, the main creator of Crayola's wax crayons, admitted that he doesn’t really distinguish colors (ie color blind).
6. The fake blood on the set of Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street was orange due to the panic fear Johnny Depp experiences when he sees the blood. Then she was given the desired color on the computer.
5. Starting in the 1890s, simple pencils began to be painted yellow. All because graphite for their production came from China, and in China yellow was considered the color of the royal dynasty. Thus, manufacturers of pencils made it clear that they contain high-quality Chinese graphite. Since then, they have remained yellow.
4. Some women are tetrachromatic. This means that they can perceive approximately 100 times more colors than ordinary people perceive.
3. When UPS launched its operations in Germany in 1976, UPS didn’t like the locals because the brown shirts of the company’s employees caused them unpleasant associations with the Nazis. UPS changed the shirts brown to green.
2. The following is an excerpt from a 1918 industry magazine (when pink was still considered boyish and blue was a girl’s): “The generally accepted rule is pink for boys and blue for girls. The reason is pink, being a more determined and strong color is more suitable for boys, while the blue color, which is more refined and graceful, looks better on girls. "
1. Orange was named after the orange ("orange" in English). Prior to this, this color on english language was called "geoluread", which translates as "yellow red." However, you already know about this from our
1) Human eye most clearly distinguishes shades of green.
3) Accordingly, the fact that complementary to green - red is just a common misconception . Green and red together create the so-called "color contrast" - a dynamic unstable combination different colors. But green and purple (purple with a red admixture) - this is just the real complementary combination - where the colors reinforce each other and create a stable, stable picture. In general, with really complementary combinations there is a balance, a counterbalance, there is no dynamism and incompleteness.
4) In the language, green also left its mark. At first, in many languages, green and blue-green (or even blue with them) are one color . Why this happens - you can read here:. Yes, and individual people do not have the category of "blue-green" in their heads - it is simplified to "blue", "green", or even to "blue".
5) Since green is associated with a new shoot, in many languages \u200b\u200bit means young and immature.
Sometimes with the added meaning of inexperience. In Russian, this expression is "young - green." 
6) In a word "green room"
(literally - "green room" - apparently an association with the relaxing properties of green) is often called a place to relax in the theater, cinema and for actors and singers awaiting performance. 
7) negative green associations in some languages \u200b\u200bare associated with envy (green with envy), and in some - with longing and stagnation (mossiness, waterlogging) (turned green with longing, longing green).
8) In Chinese slang "wear a green hat" means roughly the same thing as "walking with set horns" in Russian \u003d) That is, a situation where a person is cheated.
You can talk about red color endlessly. Firstly, it turns out that the red color of men and women perceive completely differently. It is no coincidence that for many years people have been joking that a man does not recognize either the “color of a frightened nymph” or the “color of a sea wave”. This does not happen at all because of the callousness and inattention of the stronger sex, but because the spectrum of shades perceived by the male brain is much smaller than the female. It directly depends on the DNA. The fact is that the special gene responsible for the interpretation of red color is in the X chromosome, and, as you know, in women, unlike men, there is one more X chromosome. This state of affairs allows a woman to capture absolutely all shades of red.
In the era of black-and-white television, red filters were often used in cameras, because of which red lipstick made lips on TV screens faint. Therefore, the announcer and actresses were made up with green blush and lipstick.
The prohibiting red traffic light is not at all accidental. There is such a thing as Rayleigh dispersion. Our eye sees scattered waves - from red (longwave) to purple or blue (shortwave). In this case, short waves when passing through atmospheric air are scattered more than long ones. This pattern is especially important in bad weather - in fog or rain. Red is perceived by a person faster and more clearly due to its physical parameters and due to the wavelength of light. Simply put, red from afar can be seen much better than, say, blue or purple.
By the way, according to statistics, red cars more often than others get into accidents. Red color excites and actively affects the nervous system, respectively, and the driving style becomes much more aggressive. The main danger for owners of red cars is cars of the same color: due to the unusual superposition of speed and color, the illusion is created that another driver is going to “cut you”. The higher the speed, the stronger the optical illusion.
Blue is the warmest color
Studies show that blue is the most favorite color in the world. It is preferred by 40% of the world's population. Such a choice can hardly be called random. Blue is not annoying, from contemplation of the indigo color, according to experts, the nervous system comes into full order. Once, in the Japanese city of Nara, scientists, teaming up with the police, conducted an exciting experiment: in the most criminal neighborhoods of the city, the yellow lights were replaced with blue, the same thing was done at the railway station, where suicides were often committed. Surprisingly, the crime rate in record time periods in disadvantaged areas decreased by 9%, and at the railway station, not a single suicide occurred in two years.
In addition to calmness, which determines the blue color, it also activates the brain. And scientists from the University of Canada have found that blue contributes to creative thinking.
It is all the more surprising that in ancient Rome, according to historians, the blue color was not liked because the barbarians with whom the Romans permanently fought, as a rule, painted bodies in blue color for intimidation.
Yellow color - joy and appetite
If you want to lose weight and just went on a diet - do not rush to repaint the walls of the kitchen in yellow. Often in restaurants and cafes they use furniture or decor in bright yellow color, and all because yellow and orange colors evoke appetite. A number of special studies have proved that it is precisely this color scheme that contributes to the production of gastric juice, and besides, in a warm “backlight” the products seem more attractive.
Of the entire spectrum of colors, yellow is the lightest, shining color, due to this peculiarity it attracts a lot of attention, and other colors in combination with yellow are better perceived by the eye, and a bright yellow marker is considered the first in the world in popularity.
However, not all shades of yellow are so positive, since the old dirty yellow was considered the color of despondency and sorrow, which is why often the walls in psychiatric hospitals were painted exactly this shade, and in ancient times the yellow was considered the color of betrayal - Judas was most often depicted in yellow robes.
Yes, orange, traditionally considered to be another color of positive, causes quite different associations among Americans - the fact is that the prison form in the USA is orange. However, there is no particular subtext here - just the orange color, just like red, is clearly visible from afar, so it’s not at all difficult for the guards to shoot to kill the escaped prisoners.
Pink sedative
Our emotional response to color is incredibly strong. The perception of color depends on the physiological characteristics of your eyes and on the state of the nervous system, on life experience and the environment. We all know the common expression that optimists look at the world through pink glasses. In part, this statement is true. As scientists have found out, pink has the most beneficial effect on our nervous system, even stronger than blue. The contemplation of pink dulls uncontrollable anger and physical aggression so much that this color is actively used in correctional institutions and schools for difficult children in order to prevent asocial behavior and reduce suicide attempts. So, if at work it turned out to be a difficult day, buy yourself a pink dress or handbag, or better, both.
In a state prison in Georgia, the entire inside of the men's unit is pink and the prisoners are pink. According to the head of the prison, after this innovation in prison, there were significantly fewer conflicts among prisoners. The female part of the prison was painted in lemon green, however, it is not reported whether there is the same effect from it.
Chromatophobia - fear of color
Such a disease does exist. Some people with this disorder have a strong reaction to certain shades, while others generally try to avoid certain colors. Affected chromatophobia experiences symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, shortness of breath, feelings of panic, increased heart rate and blood pressure, anxiety, headache, and trembling. However, modern psychiatry can cope with this disease, unlike many others.
Our universe also has color
Astronomers are extremely romantic people. Scientists who enthusiastically study the cosmos, argue that the universe has its own color. In order to determine the same shade in 2001, scientists from Johns Hopkins University averaged the colors of 200,000 galaxies and got a beige-white color, which was called Space Coffee with Milk.
Scientists have identified the most unpleasant color
If there is the most attractive color for most people - blue, then surely there is the most nasty. Australian scientists decided to find the answer to this question. And they found. The desired color according to the international classification is called Pantone 448C, and it looks like a mixture of swamp slurry and excrement. Research has been conducted for a reason - with the help of the most disgusting color, the Australian authorities are going to fight smoking. How? The use of Pantone 448C colors in cigarette packs leads to a progressive decline in sales of these products. The experience of overseas neighbors is also about to be taken over by some European countries. Although, in fact - the question is solely in personal preferences, for some, the unfortunate Pantone 448C may seem very pretty.
The strangest color names
For an appetizer, we offer you to enjoy the most non-trivial names of various shades: for example, in addition to the color of the frightened nymph's thigh, there is also the color of a frightened mouse and a toad in love, juicy pink is called the color of the Judas tree, and close to our beloved coral, it’s partridge eyes. A particularly touching name is the color of Parisian mud, which, incidentally, is quite true, the color of a spider plotting a crime (it looks very much like a frightened mouse) and the last breath of a jaco (apparently, this is a parrot).
I adore yellow tulips, but for some reason everyone thinks that yellow flowers should not be given for separation. In fact, this is nonsense. Today we’ll talk about yellow in all areas of our lives.
- Yellow color gives a feeling of joy, fun, charges with optimism. People living in warm climates, in countries where there is a lot of sun, often smile.
- "The Yellow Press" got its name from the comic strip "The Yellow Child", which was released in 1894-1998. in the American newspapers New-York World and New-York Journal American. These publications were famous for their scandalous chronicle and base articles. So, gossip, rumors, scandals became his "yellow provocateurs" for the formation of public opinion.
- No wonder that the walls of houses for mental hospitals are painted yellow (hence the name "yellow house"), this color brings relief in some forms of mental illness.
- It is believed that soft yellow light has a good effect on vision. So it’s good for the eyes to look at the setting sun and fire.
- The yellow robe of Buddhist monks symbolizes humility, the rejection of worldly desires.
- Yellow was Van Gogh's favorite color. On his canvases there was a whole gamut of yellow. But the artist considered the cold blue gamut to be the colors of death, eternity.
- The writer Gorky called New York the city of the "Yellow Dragon" because of the eternal bustle and constant pursuit of its inhabitants for money.
- If you like the yellow color, you are an energetic and cheerful person who is constantly on the move, does not like to sit still and be bored.
- If you are indifferent to yellow, then you make high demands on life and others.
- If you reject the yellow color, then most often this indicates a complete loss of interest in life, a pessimistic attitude towards everything, deep depression or mental trauma.
- If you reject the golden color, then you do not want to accept yourself as you are, and you have communication problems.
- Dull yellow in the Middle Ages was considered a bad color. In France, the doors of the traitors were painted yellow.
- Sunny, bright yellow color in clothes is very suitable for dark-skinned people, those whose skin has a rich golden brown hue with a warm peach blush. There will never be too much yellow clothing for them.
- Yellow shades well emphasize the green color of the eyes, make them expressive. Use yellow and gold accents in your costume closer to your face.
- Yellow in the interior helps to expand the space. But too rich yellow can tire and cause irritation, and slightly muted shades of yellow are perfect for the main color of the walls.
1. Cows do not distinguish colors; for them, the world is black and white. Therefore, it cannot be said that in bullfighting a bull rushes at a mulelet precisely because of color. He is annoyed by sudden movements of the fabric. And the matadors chose the color red because the blood of the animal is not so noticeable on it.
2. Aircraft "black box" is known to all. This concept is so common, especially recently. This flight recorder records everything that happens in the cockpit, as well as all technical information. But at the same time, this design is made in the form of a cylinder or ball and painted in orange or red. This is for ease of box detection.
3. There is still such a well-known concept of “white noise”. This is a signal with a uniform spectral density at all frequencies and an infinite dispersion. An example would be the sound of a waterfall, or hissing on an empty radio channel. But there are other types of noise - pink (spectral density is inversely proportional to frequency), red (density is inversely proportional to the square of the frequency), blue, gray, violet, brown, etc.
4. The color of the sky is associated with the properties of the solar spectrum. Its short-wave part is scattered more strongly in air than the long-wave part. That is why the sky seems blue - since this color is from the shortwave end of the spectrum. But at dawn or sunset the sky is reddish, as the light travels tangentially to the surface of the earth, its path is longer and the blue-green part of the spectrum is scattered.
5. A zebra is often called a black and white striped horse. After the studies carried out at the embryonic stage, it turned out that the zebra is black with white stripes.
6. In the old days in Scotland, color was very important when creating kilts. The owner’s rank determined the number and color of the stripes in the fabric. So 6 kings could be worn on a kilt only by kings. Also, color was an excellent indicator of geographical affiliation, because each territory had its own sources of paint (usually plants)
7. "Black Sheep" - the European analogue of the Russian "white crow". But the European version speaks not only about the unusualness of the object, but also about its undesirability in society. So in terms of meaning, he is perhaps even closer to the expression “black sheep”.
8. The appearance of the facades of medieval cathedrals - gray, austere - was not always like that. So in the 90s of the last century, the Amiens Cathedral was restored in France, and it turned out that once it was painted in bright colors. Now it is illumined on holidays with the same colors as in the 13th century.
9. In Georgia, in the men's department of one of the prisons, everyone was painted pink and even the uniform was sewn to prisoners in the same colors. They say that the number of conflicts there has significantly decreased. And the female wing in the same prison was repainted in lemon yellow ....
10. In 1668, by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the Dutch engineer David Butler built the first Russian warship, the Eagle. But a problem arose - it was necessary to raise the flag on the ship, and the king then had neither a fleet, nor a flag, respectively. They asked Butler for advice, he spoke about the flag of his homeland. That tricolor flag is now in the Netherlands. For the "Eagle" they took the same flag, from three stripes of red, white and of blue colorby changing only their order. By the way, there is no official interpretation of the colors of the Russian flag today.
11. The Nazis and Nazism were firmly tied to the brown uniforms of the first stormtroopers. But these were actually the remains of the colonial African form of the times. After the loss of colonies after the First World War, this form was accumulated in a warehouse and was sold cheaply to the Nazis.
12. Billiards is a relative of golf and croquet; its predecessors were outdoor games with a stick and balls. Here, in memory of the green grass, the color of the cloth on the tables has been preserved.
13. Often there is toothpaste with colorful stripes. But why are they not mixed during extrusion? It turns out the whole thing in the design of the neck of the tube. It ends with a tube at the level of the white layer, and closer to the exit there are small holes into which the colored parts of the paste enter. Such a tube was invented back in the 1950s in the United States.
14. The Spanish nobility and the royal family kept genealogies from the West Goths and were proud that they never mixed with the Moors who entered the peninsula from Africa. The commoners were dark-skinned, but the nobility on the fair skin was clearly visible blue veins. Therefore they called themselves sangre azul. So the expression "blue blood" quickly penetrated into many European languages.
15. The Philippines has the only national flag, which has two equal options. It depicts a triangle with stars and the sun inside on a background of blue and red stripes. In peacetime, the red stripe is at the bottom, and in war - the flag flips over and the red stripe is at the top.
16. It is incorrect to say that a person decomposes the color into blue (B), green (G) and red (R) components. He perceives the difference in brightness between black and white, yellow and blue, red and green. Therefore, the color of objects is perceived identically in different lighting conditions.
17. When television was black and white, red filters were often used in cameras, because of this, red lipstick made pale lips on TV screens. I had to make up announcers and actresses with green lipstick and blush. Now this is no longer a problem. According to the Regional Agreement of the International Telecommunication Union "Geneva 2006", the analog signal will be turned off in 2015 and all viewers will have to switch to the "digit". However, this date is unlikely to affect Ukraine - we have a massive digital transition came across an insurmountable wall of bureaucracy. Therefore, in Ukraine, most likely, the transition to “digital TV” will be provided using satellite dishes and Internet TV by the users themselves individually. For example, I use the budget solution globo telecard, which makes it possible to view high-quality, without color distortion, satellite TV.
18. In Japanese, the colors blue and green did not differ, they were indicated by the same word aoi. They began to be distinguished only from the middle of the 20th century, although even now aoi usually means the color of plants. By the way, in other Asian languages, a similar situation. There, even if there are words to distinguish between these colors, all the same all the plants are called blue, and only man-made green objects are called green.
19. Blue eye color is the result of mutations in the HERC2 gene. She reduced the production of melanin in the iris of the carriers of this gene. It arose 6–10 thousand years ago on the Black Sea coast in its northwest. So we can say that all blue-eyed are relatives.
20. It was believed that Greek sculptures were colorless. But recent studies have shown that statues were painted in a residually large range of colors. Only time, external influences erased these paints.
21. The spectrum of the rainbow is continuous. But even Isaac Newton suggested highlighting 7 primary colors in it. However, he initially identified five colors - green, red, blue, yellow and purple (according to Optics). But later, for the beauty and harmony of colors to musical tones, Newton added 2 more colors.
22. Dalmatians are always born snow-white.
23. The pink color of flamingos is manifested when eating small red crustaceans or algae with a high content of carotenoids.