Color differences?

I wasn't sure where to put this so I'll put it here. A little while ago my little brother asked me a question that I did not have a question to. This is why I'm posting it here. He asked me how do people know what color they are seeing? I didn't understand his question and had him explain. He said maybe "My" red is actually "YOUR" blue, and "MY" orange" is "YOUR" Green. This made me think. How DO we know if we all see the same colors? It's not like you can get inside someone and see through their eyes. I'm just curious... what do you guys think?

Speaking as a guy who's colorblind beyond belief, I can identify with my yellow being someone else's green, my green being someone elses dark green or blue, I don't even see the color orange, it all looks red or light red.

I think that people see the same color as a consensus type of thing. Basically, unless someone is known to be colorblind, the human eye should perceive colors pretty close to the same. There will probably be subtle differences, but the message will still get across that the grass is green, the sky is blue, etc.

But even more interesting, is how can people with perfect pitch be able to tell what note they can hear? My father can hear a chord and tell you exactly what musical notes are being played in that chord etc..

For him it's like seeing a color and being able to identify it. Then why can't everyone identify a musical tone? Interesting phenomena isn't it?

Originally posted by DarkHelmet
I wasn't sure where to put this so I'll put it here. A little while ago my little brother asked me a question that I did not have a question to. This is why I'm posting it here. He asked me how do people know what color they are seeing? I didn't understand his question and had him explain. He said maybe "My" red is actually "YOUR" blue, and "MY" orange" is "YOUR" Green. This made me think. How DO we know if we all see the same colors? It's not like you can get inside someone and see through their eyes. I'm just curious... what do you guys think?

It is possible for others to see colors different than others as far as being color blind. All colors that we see depend on how our eyes and brain interpret it. To some people Orange may look Red and so forth. All visible colors are just a range of light waves. Those waves are just frequencies which are vibrations at different rates.

Here is some info from Howstuffworks.com

When light enters the eye, it comes in contact with the photosensitive chemical rhodopsin (also called visual purple). Rhodopsin is a mixture of a protein called scotopsin and 11-cis-retinal -- the latter is derived from vitamin A (which is why a lack of vitamin A causes vision problems). Rhodopsin decomposes when it is exposed to light because light causes a physical change in the 11-cis-retinal portion of the rhodopsin, changing it to all-trans retinal. This first reaction takes only a few trillionths of a second. The 11-cis-retinal is an angulated molecule, while all-trans retinal is a straight molecule. This makes the chemical unstable. Rhodopsin breaks down into several intermediate compounds, but eventually (in less than a second) forms metarhodopsin II (activated rhodopsin). This chemical causes electrical impulses that are transmitted to the brain and interpreted as light.

The color-responsive chemicals in the cones are called cone pigments and are very similar to the chemicals in the rods. The retinal portion of the chemical is the same, however the scotopsin is replaced with photopsins. Therefore, the color-responsive pigments are made of retinal and photopsins. There are three kinds of color-sensitive pigments:
Red-sensitive pigment
Green-sensitive pigment
Blue-sensitive pigment
Each cone cell has one of these pigments so that it is sensitive to that color. The human eye can sense almost any gradation of color when red, green and blue are mixed.

Color blindness is the inability to differentiate between different colors. The most common type is red-green color blindness. This occurs in 8 percent of males and 0.4 percent of females. It occurs when either the red or green cones are not present or not functioning properly. People with this problem are not completely unable to see red or green, but often confuse the two colors.

Light Spectrum


Color Spectrum

A "doc" said i was a little colorblind like 8 years ago...

but i dont think i am?? anyway, yes i was thinking the same thing, like i could seeing "green" as someone seeing it as purple or even red, how in the world would you beable to see who is wrong?? like think about it!

[Edited on 19-1-2004 by Dmsoldier]

couldn't tell ya, im color blind like a freak. Is the flag red blue and dark purple in anyone elses world????