this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2025
267 points (95.3% liked)

Science Memes

11972 readers
3100 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 27 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Brown is actually dark orange. It just became its own thing when we gave it a distinct name. So people who know more color names really can see more colors.

[–] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

darker than what? There is no such thing as dark light, colors like brown and pink that are lighter or darker require a comparison point to see

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

you've somehow managed to explain it without understanding it, the whole point is that brown only exists in contrast to other colours.

Brown means "orange that is darker than surrounding colours"

[–] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 3 points 2 days ago

I think we agree, that was my point 😅

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

lighted-display (like a monitor or TV) of brown is dark orange, yes.

In the actual, real, no the physical world, the one you wake up in before getting on the lighted rectangles, brown is a real color.

[–] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Except it isn't "real" in the sense that it doesn't correspond to a specific wavelength of light. It is impossible to produce a brown light; the closest you can get is amber. The color brown is context-dependent and only exists in our perception. To display brown on a screen you have to use orange, desaturate it, and make sure it's darker than its surroundings.

If you pull up a solid brown image on your phone and hold it against a darker background (you may need to turn off the lights), you will see orange.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Right, but in real-life, not in producing a lighted color, just like looking: things are brown. A coffee stain, say.

[–] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 7 points 2 days ago

If you were to point a spectrometer at something brown like a tree trunk you would see wavelengths corresponding to red and green light. That's what I mean when I say brown only exists in our perception; there is no wavelength of light corresponding to the color brown.

[–] ReCursing -2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

No it's not. Orangey-brown is kinda dark orange I guess, but greenish brown is certainly not

[–] Acinonyx@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

what's the hexcode for greenish brown?

[–] rtxn@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

It doesn't exist. Nor does brown. It's all just orange, but with extra context. Here is a video you should watch that will be exploring the color brown.

[–] Kichae@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 days ago

I can smell a Technology Connections link from a mile away, apparently.