HOW
HUMANS SEE COLORS
But such a philosophical question requires a certain amount of time spent on
pondering, and as I was but a child when I sought for answers, the very first
thing I thought of was that the colors are what makes the world beautiful.
With that simple idea in mind, I asked myself. What exactly is color? Thankfully,
I had the perfect application that would answer my questions with credible
information: Encarta Encyclopedia. After a lot of reading, I found out the
following: Color is a property, causing visual sensation. It could also be defined as a
physical property of light or visual perception that enables one to
differentiate otherwise identical objects.
But where do colors come from? Allow me to enlighten you a bit. Color
actually comes from light. Or to be precise, from the frequency it emits. Light
is an energy, producing brightness. And the color you see, depends on the
wavelength of the light. When the light’s frequency is high, our eyes perceive it as violet. When it
is low, our eyes perceive it as red. The frequency range of this two colors is
known as the visible spectrum. In between those two colors, violet and red, are the other colors such as
orange, yellow, green and blue. And in between those colors are the tertiary
colors such as yellow-green and yellow-orange.
Don’t be mistaken that objects themselves emit color. When you see colors on
your everyday things, what actually happens is that when light hits an object,
it either absorbs part of it, or bounces of some of it. The light that was bounced of had its wavelengths changed. When it reaches
the human eyes, the organ will process it such that our brain will understand
it. And that’s how colors come from objects.
But as I thought more about this subject, I realized that no matter how
much light is present in the world, humans won’t see colors without their eyes.
The eyes are the only organs through which humans can perceive color. After a bit more research, I found out that the retina, which is a light-sensitive
membrane in the back of the eye, is an essential organ needed for humans to
perceive color. Furthermore, the retina contains two crucial components: rods and cones.
These two components receive an image from the lens and send it to the brain
through the optic nerve. The function of this two components
work in different circumstances. The rods are used for seeing in low-light
conditions. The cones, however, are used to discern light in areas where light
is abundant. In dark areas, where light is so little, the rods are put to use. They can
only discern one type of signal, which leaves no room for colors to be
processed. That is why you can only see so little in dim places. On the other hand, the cones are used in light filled areas. There are only
three cones present in the retina. Each cone can perceive one color each,
namely red, green and blue. All other colors are only the combination of these
three. Once the frequencies of light are read by the retinal cones, they divide it
on which frequency is more similar to red, blue, or green. When the information
reaches the brain, it cleverly mixes the frequencies to perceive the colors.
When we stare at a fascinating scene such as the wonder of nature, and we
are amazed at its beauty and grandeur, remember that what’s at work with this
experience are the colors and your eyes. Be that as it may, a sight can only
be so wonderful when it is colorful. When the world continuously gets polluted,
it gradually loses the lively color it once possessed, thereby reducing its
beauty. The way humans see color should now be understood through my speech. But
the reason why we humans want to see color is so we can appreciate the beauty
of the world. Together,
hand in hand, let us do our best to conserve the beauty of our planet. The
world is truly a beautiful pl
What we see is just a reflection of light. We will never know what the true colors are in this world.
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