Color Only Exists In Your Brain!

This video about the fundamental nature of color was made for the 2014 Flame Challenge, whose goal was to give an answer to the question "What Is Color?" that an 11-year old could understand. The subtle notion that light is not by itself colored and that color only exists in our brains might have been too much for the youngsters, and the video didn't make the finals.

You can check out the wonderful winning video by PhysicsGirl:

[Dot.Inside]

So your saying my friend could actually look like a smurf but I dont know

[rolo]

I was just bored so I googled this lmao

[JessicaSunsh]

This is an awesome video! My daughter has been asking me about color and I have not been able to satisfy her curiosity. This has just enough detail to answer her questions and it's presented in a way that it will not discourage her. Thank you!

[FreeGreatBritain]

I saw colours that I didn't know existed when I done LSD, I can't even explain them into words because they had no resemblance to any known colour and there is no way that red, green, or blue had any relation to them. My whole approach to perception changed forever as I'm now struggling to ever believe my eyes.

[ReyCha]

The combined IQ of everyone in the comments excluding me adds up to a single digit.

[saverio_]

"If a tree falls in the forest and theres noone around, does it make any sound?"
"If a strawberry is on the table and theres noone around, is the strawberry still Red?"
This is for anybody who thinks that the tree is producing sound
(The tree produces sound-waves that needs your ear to become the sound of falling tree/the strawberry still reflect the light with that specific vibrition, but is your mind creating Red)
In a way, as Alan Watts used to Say
"You evoke life(color, taste, smell, sound and even touch)out of the universe, you are part of the process"

[imaginativecreations]

So the acrylic paints that im using is colorless .. Next time if i went to shop I'll buy perceptions..

[ZoroHayoung]

Color doesn't even exist out of your mind but people keeping saying "i am black, white, yellow, blue, etc"...

[shazanali]

Well it's not that hard, get a object and put your hand over it blocking the light source something like the sun or the lightbulb, you notice say a orange is not orange anymore, cut out the light completely and the part of the orange in the shade is greyish, it's the photons that hit the orange and come into your eyes and the information sent to the brain define the colour of the objects, we all all frequency

[deucefoAM]

While we experience color in the mind, they way in which we conceptualize it is contingent on external conditions. Color is not a property of the object itself, nor of the mind itself, but a property of the interaction between the physical eye and the physical object. However, there appear to be many ways in which our cognitive states can effect the way we experience color. Physics cannot currently explain all mental phenomena related to color experience. The question of where color perception is actually generated in the process remains unclear for anyone who isn't a staunch physicalist, but there are studies to refute them.

[daredevilskydiver]

Very well explained, finally after surfing for last 18 Hrs I get it.

[richiejourney]

All this rhetoric between physics and metaphysics = blah blah blah. Let’s simplify the reality shall we....

Assume a controlled environment. What we perceive as “color” is an interaction of certain energy waves with the material properties of physical objects where in some are absorbed and transferred to heat while others are reflected off of the material which IF they hit our eyes we translate into a “color”. That means “color” exists for us AS WE PERCEIVE IT. No two people perceive “color” exactly the same way EVEN THOUGH THE WAVES ARE EXACTLY THE SAME. Different species “see” differently again-even though the waves are the same. “Color” therefore is in biological translation of energy waves information and is in the mind of the beholder. This of course makes “color” “real” and “existent” for us but it is not the same for all creatures.
I would say that “color” is more like a perceptual language of light wave information and not a physical object of existence. Therefore, “color” is an brain image or other biological sensation, associated to energy waves. Both are real to us because that is our reality but one is physical and the other metaphysical.

The video is correct because it simply describes how they combine in our reality.

[harleydad]

Colors exist. It's obvious. If anyone is trying to confuse you about that...they can't answer the question, what came first the chicken or the egg.

[mdmunna]

If there is nothing like color but friquency then why it reflect several friquency only?

[brandonnaylor]

This video was tremendously awesome 👏 so since animals, or rather some animals, don't have the same amount of colour receptors our eyes do, does this mean that reality is in fact black-and-white or translucent/transparent but without colour?

[techteampxla]

Color exists outside the brain, it’s just possibly not the same color you and I see…

[abbajr]

This is what they teach people in america

[SaebaRyo]

Greatly explained! I really like the way of explanation blended with the animation! 🤗
Your channel is underrated.

[Immolator]

Why do people confuse illusion with fakeness? Illusion is a trick not something that is fake

[coltukkor]

The biggest obstacle of understanding the universe is our brains limited ability to process the real world.Our limited senses are clouding our judgment.Perhaps over time the human brain will develop new senses and/or new ways to detect the universe as it is and not just how we perceive it to be.