THIS IS NOT YELLOW Philosophy

Magenta is not a real color.

Magenta is a non-spectral hue.

Magenta is not a real color.

Beauty in the eye of the beholder Your eyes have only three color receptors (detectors) - the RGB cones (red-green-blue) It is the brain that interprets visible light as “having” color.

Yellow light is perceived by our eyes when two color receptors, Red and Green, are stimulated simultaneously. This is indicated on the diagram by the red and green arrows. It is the brain that interprets yellow light as “having” a yellow color.

Maxwell’s Triangle Think of the saturated red and green colors on Maxwell’s diagram as vectors. Now, imagine “decomposing” these R and G vectors into the sum of the dashed arrows.

Maxwell’s Triangle See how two of the decomposed vectors that run along the right edge of the triangle are co-linear but point in exactly opposite directions? They cancel each other. This leaves the shorter vectors components these vectors have the same direction and point from yellow. They represent the yellow “product” from adding red and green.

Maxwell’s Triangle Blue + Yellow = White?! Blue + yellow vectors point in exactly opposite direction and cancel to make white.

Is there a unique GREEN “out there? Note that there is no wavelength where only the “green” cones detect