Where does darkness come from?

Question

Colors arise from light shining onto an object. What the object doesnt absorb it reflects back into your eye.

Color comes from photons. But where does darkness come from?

And I know your thinking -- darkness is the absence of light -- but that doesnt explain where it comes from. What is the origin/source of darkness?

And if it is just an absence of light, shouldnt we see a void rather than black. And if it doesnt exist (have no source) does that mean its a optical illusion?

Answer 1

Lack of heat. Everything that is visible uses heat.  Think of the universe as a an example. When we see space, we see darkness.  When we see stars, we see light and where that light originates from is the presence of heat.  Heat is needed to jump the electrons to its most outer state making it produce and emit light. Once that process is over, we dont see light and all we must see is darkness. Darkness is the product of removing heat.

Answer 2

Darkness isn't always an absence of light.  The sun gives off most of its electromagnetic radiation in the form of visible light rather than ultra-violet, gamma, or any other source of radiation.  It is no coincidence that human beings over the course of many millions of years have evolved to be only to see visible light.  You could be in a room full of radio waves, which is made of the same stuff as visible light, but the room would appear completely black because our eyes are not sensitive enough to detect such a broader wavelength of light.  Darkness is simply the minds way of saying, " I don't detect any visible light".  Visible light is such a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum.  There is really light everywhere.....day or night....cloudy or clear, but your eyes just can't see it.

Sound works the same way.  Humans can actually detect audible sound waves between 20 and 20,000 hertz and dogs have an audible range of 40 - 40,000 hertz.  This is why dogs can here a dog whistle being blown but humans can not.  Their ears are simply built to be able to detect much shorter wavelengths of sound than we can.  This is how dogs know when someone is outside your house much sooner than you do.  They simply have better hearing.  Rattlesnakes....they see infrared light which is visible light to them.  It is simply light that has slightly longer wavelengths than what humans can see.  Infrared is light that is given off by slight rises in temperature.  Light is energy that is given off when an electron goes from a higher energy state to a lower energy state.  I hope this helps explain it a little better.  Let me know.  CYA

Answer 3

It's technically "light" that comes from photons, not color. And darkness it not actually the absence of photons, but the absence of photons that possess a wavelength which our eyes can detect.

As to why we do not see a void, remember that "black" color is caused by a surface which absorbs all wavelengths of visible light and thus does not reflect any visible light to your eye. So what we see as "darkness" is very similar to what we see as "black." It's just the way our eyes work...there's no optical illusion, because we see the same thing either way.

Answer 4

Ok, here is an un-educated guess. Darkness exists everywhere all the time. It's not an absence of light because it exists whether or not a source of light exists. Light may be added to darkness, but darkness cannot be removed because it is always present. It isn't "black" simply because we can see black objects in light. That doesn't quite answer where it comes from, but hopefully will spark some discussion.

Answer 5

It's like saying where does nothingness come from.

Black is void.  It is just how your brain interprets your retina not being hit by photons of light.  

So, you you could say that the black is simply coming from your brain.

Other than that, you can go quite mad trying to make complexity out of simplicity.  

Light activating your retina is interpreted as various colours.  No light, no colour.  Simple as that.

Answer 6

light comes from photons not color. photons are light particals. black is not a color it is the absence of light. black itself is the void. there is no "not color" that we humans have found out to exsist.