A question about color?

Question

We see color when different waves of light are reflected or absorbed by something. So in order for us to see a color light needs to be hitting that object. So if you take a red hat in a pitch black room would it change color? The way I see it the hat would have to change color because there is no light to reflect of it. I want to hear all your opinions on the matter.Thanks.

Answer 1

It isn't so much that the hat would change color, as you just plain wouldn't be able to see it.The colors we see are a combination of pigments, light wavelength, and the way our eyes work. That is why color blind people can't see certain colors, or confuse them. It could be said that without light, the hat has no color, but it wouldn't change color unless one of those three things were altered.

Answer 2

no it doesn't change color you just can't see it because its dark

Answer 3

Well the hat itself would not physically change color. But the color that our eyes SEE would change. In a pitch black room, we would see a different color, yet it would not be a different color. Things also change colors in different lightings. My hair has many colors in it, but you look at me and say I'm a redhead. In rather dim lighting, my hair is very brown. In the car when I'm riding around, my hair is actually blonde. Everywhere else it is red. I would say for a head of hair to change colors, those colors have to be IN the hair, even if they are not visible.

And if we were in a pitch black room we still may be able to see color. How I look at it is this.

If we were in a dark room, but our eyes became ajusted to the dark, I may be able to pick out a red table. If this were a room that I was used to and I have lived in for years, It would be easy for me to know the table is red. I would remember it's color, and my mind would make the table look a little red, even in the darkness, because that is how I remember the table. If I were in a room I had never been in before, I wouldn't know what color the things are in light, thus I wouldn't be able to see them in color.

Answer 4

Your right, if the hat is red and its in a pitch black room then it might change color bc if there is no ray of light in the room then the hat has to be the same color of the room bc the light is not showing you the color the hat realy is so a red hat could be a blue hat or a yellow hat or any color you could think of!!!!

IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT!!!

DeAnna Kemplin

Answer 5

Color relates to visual perception.  If there is no light, there is no visual perception.  The optical properties of the material don't change in the absence of light.

Answer 6

uhhhhhhhhh why don't you just try it?

Answer 7

"So in order for us to see a color light needs to be hitting that object." - This is not always true. Like you said, a red hat is not red because red light is hitting the hat, it is because the hat is inherently red in color and when natural light falls on it, it appears red, and when lights of different color fall on it, it's perceptible color changes accordingly. Now, when you take it to a dark room, it appears black or even not visible because no light is falling on it.