Colors are a construct of how our brain interprets the signal from the little receptors in our eyes which detect certain wavelengths of electromagnetic energy. Therefore, the set of colors defined by humans are bound by the limits of this mechanism. While some of us may be able to detect a wider or deeper range of waves and intensities than others, you yourself won't be able to very well imagine a color you can't see.
Humans don't register ultraviolet or infrared rays so we can't really imagine what they would actually look like, even though some animals
can see them. Same goes for radiowaves, microwaves, and x-rays, etc., except as far as I know no living being see waves of those wavelengths. So, when it comes to a ultraviolet color, you might be able to define it with words in some way, or try to make some sort of analogy to relate the concept to somebody, but to actually wrap your mind around what it would actually look like doesn't seem possible to me. The same reason scientists have such a hard time explaining what 11 dimensions looks like to people =P.
One interesting thing about the human eye. We only have receptors for three colors, red, green, and blue and our mind extrapolates all the other colors we know of by combining these 3 primary colors. The colors on a computer monitor, which uses light from those primary colors to display images, would probably not look correct to an animal who has more (or less) receptors.
Post Merge: January 24, 2009, 05:11:05 PM
Quote from: Kara-Xen on January 23, 2009, 11:28:08 PM
Biology discovering new colors would be awesome.
Yes it would!
