IUBio

Only 3 colours?

Ian Stirling root at mauve.demon.co.uk
Mon Mar 25 13:43:12 EST 2002


Stephen H. Westin <westin*nospam at graphics.cornell.edu> wrote:
> 
> "Neil" <neil_delver at hotmail.com> writes:
> 
> <snip>
> 
>> The point I want to make is how interesting it is that we experience
>> those "fundamental looking" colors, which don't "appear" mixed with
<snip>
>> Indeed, from that point of view, we really have four primary
>> colors since yellow doesn't look like it's made of red and green -
>> we don't call any colors "reddish-green" etc.
> 
> But from a mathematical point of view, three dimensions are sufficient
> to describe normal human color perception, since it all is mediated by
> three kinds of cones.

The rods have a significantly different peak than the green peak, IIRC, 
520nm, rather than 550nm.

In normal (scoptic) vision, are the rods totally saturated?
Do they contribute at all to scoptic vision?
What about the sense of colour?

-- 
http://inquisitor.i.am/    |  mailto:inquisitor at i.am |             Ian Stirling.
---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------------------
"I meant, have you ploughed the ocean waves at all?" Colon gave him a cunning
look. 'Ah, you can't catch me with that one, sir' he said 'Everyone knows
horses sink'                                       --  Terry Pratchett - Jingo




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