Magenta Is All In Your Head

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Published 2020-02-24
The world is full of colors. Almost all of them can be described by a wavelength of visible light, but there are some colors out there that are just in your head!

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Sources:
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wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2015/01/22/why-are-red-yellow…
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Images:
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commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Linear_visible_spe…
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reef0484.jpg
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All Comments (21)
  • "if it gets us a nice color like magenta, it cant be all that bad :)" h.p. lovecraft has left the chat
  • Seems like the brain trying to create a color wheel, instead of the 1 way spectrum it really is. Pretty smart, brain
  • @samyen3210
    Magenta was my favorite color as a kid (blue clues) and it was so frustrating when I searched up magenta and all the images are completely different shades. Thank you for this, I feel like everyone’s version of magenta is so different now it makes sense
  • @AlthenaLuna
    I remember when Minute Physics talked about this, years ago now - there is no pink light - so when I saw this video pop up, the first thing that came to mind was minus green.
  • @cloverhighfive
    What's in your heaaaa-aaaaad, in your heaaa-eee-aaaa-aaaaad Magenta, magenta, magenta-ha a-ha a-ha
  • @JosephDavies
    Many questions come to mind: So which plants/animals in nature are "magenta" hued, and what are their natural predators/pollinators? Is this non-spectral color illusion widespread, or limited to human perception?
  • @itskdog
    I went into this video expecting a Technology Connections reference, because... BROWN.
  • @kingjames4886
    when you see magenta your brain is just missing the correct sprite...
  • @evilsharkey8954
    There’s another aspect that needs to be explained to help understand this. Mixing colors of light does not work the same way as mixing colors of pigment.
  • @jerry3790
    Fun fact: Magenta looks similar to violet because our eyes red cones actually are slightly sensitive to violet light and thus violet is also the same as having red and blue light mixed together. This is how LCDs are able to display violet.
  • @ssjiftekhar
    I see or hear the colour Magenta I'm instantly reminded about The color Out Of Spaces
  • An error: he said "rods are sensitive to light intensity and movement and cones see color and fine detail". Incorrect. Rods are active in very low light conditions (scotopic vision), but are overloaded/not part of daylight vision (photopic). Cones are sensitive to high, daylight levels of illumination. And there is a cross over between the two (mesopic). All are sensitive to light intensity, and all have their own unique bandwidth characteristics in terms of frequency response, but only cones are substantially involved in color perception. Both rods and cones are involved in movement perception, but neither "see" movement. Movement is a perception and the result of visual processing in the brain, and not related to the photoreceptors in the way the video implies. At daylight levels, cones "see" light, movement, color and and detail. At starlight levels, rods "see" light, movement, no "color", and in lower detail. (Night vision (rods) does have a blueish, though monochromatic perception for many people). The fovea (central vision) is densely packed with L and M (red/green) cones, so red and green cones are normally associated with fine detail. S cones (blue) are scattered in the periphery, and at a far lower density and thus are not associated with resolving fine detail. Essentially, ALL color is not real, as all color is just a perception of some wavelength or combination of wavelengths as processed by the brain (62% of the brain is involved in visual processing, and 20% is dedicated to visual processing)). Most of the colors we see are metameric, made up of a combination of wavelengths (pure monochromatic spectral colors are seen rarely, but a laser is such an example).  An interesting feature here is that it is possible to perceive the exact same color using two different combinations of wavelengths. This is the principle for how color TVs and computer monitors create a large gamut of color perceptions using just three colors.
  • @WyattCayer
    I've thought about this whole "non-spectral light" thing before. I was like, where does magenta come from if it doesn't have a hue wavelength that represents it? Great video! It cleared up the subject.
  • @Confron7a7ion7
    DAMNIT BRAIN! This relationship can't be built on a bed of lies!