[Closed] is black really black?

surely its just the absence of colour

2/10.
Black isn't a colour, so your research is somewhat flawed

No. It's dark white.

Or dark anything. At a subatomic level its impossible to achieve as those pesky protons get everywhere.

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Black is the absence of reflected light, something that is truly black would appear to be a hole in space where no light came from.

How much more black can you get? None. None more black.

Only Priest Black is true black the other blacks are just very very very very very very very dark blues...

There are lots of different shades of black - as you would realise, if you'd ever tried to match up a black skirt, black tights, black shoes, black handbag . . .

As the late Peter Cook once said: "I know where light comes from, but where does black come from?"

Franz Hals supposedly used 27 shades of black in one picture.

There's only one black, all the rest are contaminated blacks with some colour in there.

surely 27 shades of black are just lots of dark greys

Interesting point: what colour is used for black on a projector?

White is the new black. Or was that last year?

Knock yourselves out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additive_color
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtractive_color

watched louis theroix last night and the black nationalist movement.

there was a nation of islam guy claiming that tom jones was black. so maybe black isn't always black!!

I appreciate that black is an absence of reflected light and because of this is not considered a colour, but as it's absorbing all the light (colours) in the spectrum, does that mean that technically black objects themselves are the most colourful.............they just don't reflect any color? 😯

As you walk into a room with no light and close the door, what light is being abosorbed so as to produce the non-relfection of any colour. Is it the same answer for shadows. So something black is either absorbing all the colours of the spectrum of available light or there is no available light and it is just black.

(Sits down quickly as brain slowly melts)

Black is a darker shade of grey innit!

i've been doing some extensive research into the colour black, my overwhelming conclusion is that black is in fact black.

How simplistic 🙂

You are right if talking about RGB. Black is black (0,0,0).

However in CMYK there are many different blacks...

I am with Kimbers here - colour is the reflection of light. Black absorbs all light and doesn't reflect any back, therefore it is an absence of colour. (In a true literal sense anyway - as has been said, it is possible to have different blacks - something that is called 'rich black' in the printing trade).

At least that was what I was told at art college, just before they showed me how to whip up £50 logos and charge £500.

Black from a projector = The white on the screen
I like eyes

I want my baby back,
it's gray it's gray...

Black from a projector = The white on the screen

Exactly!

Once again someone on STW argues black is white 😀

does that mean that technically black objects themselves are the most colourful.............they just don't reflect any color?

Once again someone STW argues black is white

Similarly, how does watching a film look like it is moving when it is, in fact, just a series of still frames.

It is the brain - it's dead clever.

Seems to me that a red rose appears red because it absorbs every visible colour except red.

So if red bounces off it and everything else sticks to it then surely it is really every colour [i]except[/i] red? 😉

Also.. something vague to do with magnetic poles and planet alignment... 😀

if you'd ever tried to match up a black skirt, black tights, black shoes, black handbag . . .

yes, it's a nightnare isn't it ?

Graham S - exactly what in a terrible way I was saying - the non-reflected colour (or energy if you will) has to go somewhere.

Not all blacks are created equal.

Luckily I don't deal with colours much but in my project, but as a paint developer it is a problem.

Metamerism is one of your biggest enemies, what is black under one light is not black under another set of lights (e.g. comparing daylight to flourescent tubes).

Therefore black objects are bursting full of colour. If you where to cut it open there would be a rainbow running through it like a stick of rock. 😉

Seems to me that a red rose appears red because it absorbs every visible colour except red.

So if red bounces off it and everything else sticks to it then surely it is really every colour except red?

Similarly, how does watching a film look like it is moving when it is, in fact, just a series of still frames.

Surely realtime life is just a series of stills! 🙄

It is absorbing all the other colours (energy) that are not reflected. Energy is transferred, not created or destroyed so has to be absorbed with the only frequency not being absorbed is reflected and it is that enrgy (colour) is displayed.

(Sits back knowing someone will in fact prove that energy can be both created and destroyed in equal measure)

Surely realtime life is just a series of stills!

Surely realtime life is just a series of stills!

Yep, time is just an infinite number of individual moments... man...

[url] http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0913/ [/url]

You might have to scroll to find the black review.

But it is. The smallest chunk of time that cannot be subdivided (Planck Time) is one second by 10 to the -43.

I admit that's small (there have "only" been 4.3x10 to the power 17 seconds since the big bang) but it's real.

Was being pedantic, if you were to break down time so that you are not measuring 'frames per second', but more like milliseconds (or smaller), then movement could be broken down to a serious of, albeit miniscule, stills.

In the same way that a circle or arc is made up of many tiny straight lines!

Edit: well put Big John more coherent than my wild ramblings but is what I was getting at.
Edit: you to Graham S

Was being pedantic, if you were to break down time so that you are not measuring 'frames per second', but more like milliseconds (or smaller), then movement could be broken down to a serious of, albeit miniscule, stills.

But the human eye can fill in the blanks at something like 2 or 3 images per second and make them appear to be moving. Persistence of memory I believe that one is called. I was just using it as an example of how the mind can work things out (in a similar way that a projector can't project black but the mind can tell you it is seeing it).

Furthermore, the ability to measure time to a lesser degree doesn't mean that life is a series of 'stills' - it just means that our present ability to measure it has been exhausted.

Surely?

Is that how the Turner add works?

IIRC scientists have recently developed carbon nano tubes which are many times more black than anything previously known. This will lead to more efficient solar panels as more energy will be absorbed rather than reflected. So we have black but not absolute black.

MrBen I like your idea of cutting open a black football and watching a rainbow fall out!

Purple Acki, terrorizer of trim gentlemen in the Northwest of England, (and was so notorious that most people thought he was an urban myth) is of Nigerian decent, and his nickname comes from him being so dark-skinned he looks purple.

So is the answer 'Purple'?

I assed my mom but she sed2 stop been a retard

None of you have been to Thetford Forest then, where black is either red or blue, depending where you come from.

There's Black & there's Super Black! Blacker than Black! Eh?

My mate tried to convince me that Black was made from White, this argument went on for hours, until he then changed his statement to "Black paint is made from White.".. Not being in the Painting industry I didn't have a clue, but I did do Physics so I know Black is not made from White, might be different for paints.

I like the level of technical expertise on display here, but some great philosophers have applied their minds to this question too. 🙂

bol - Member
None of you have been to Thetford Forest then, where black is either red or blue, depending where you come from.

😛

Live in Thetford, the answer was there in front of me all along.

As a sort of aside, when I was doing a college day-release there was a student who did architectural type drawings using only black ink, but she used loads of different felttips and fountain pens, then she'd use a water wash over the top, so the ink would bleed out lots of different shades of blue, green, red, purple etc. Very effective, but required lots of research to work out what make of pen ran what colour. So there ya go, black is all sorts of colours.

so, after 51 posts by 32 stw experts i conclude that black is not black but is in fact a grey area 😆

Yep. It's down there in black and white...

...oh, is that my coat? Thank you, most kind.

Say it loud!

I'm many shades of very dark grey with an inner rainbow and I'm proud!

So if black is black because it soaks up all the colours, is that why shite Ka bumpers go grey? Are they full?

^^^LOL

Black is the absence of reflected light

Right, so what's gloss black? Shiny, cos it reflects, but it still looks black. How's that work?

(I could give an answer but it'd spoil the imact of the question, and I want to see if any of you lot can figure it out)

Because the surface is reflecting the light entirely.

Then it'd be white...

My ability to describe the phenomenon escapes me but your argument would mean that a mirror would be white too.

I know in my head what is happening but cannot explain it so please do so for me (us).

🙂

Damn, someone beat me with the spinal tap quote.

With reference to the gloss black question...............I reckon it might be that the object is black because it aborbs all natural daylight (from the sun....just in case) which is made up of the colours in the spectrum.

The gloss effect comes from having a material finish that reflects un-natural ambient light from bulbs etc which do not have a short enough wavelength (i.e high enough energy) to penetrate the objects surface and so reflect back.

I don't really think that those at Cern need worry about the STW colony taking there jobs any time soon! 😉

I like Pink.

It's better than Black anyday.

Personally I prefer the shade that's a sort of flourescent purpleish green.