Have you been following this ridiculous debate about the color of this dress? People are going nuts all over different social media about what the color of this dress is based on the photo that has exploded all over the internet.
I'm calling it ridiculous because people are actually arguing with each other, disagreeing about what they see, and then found it rather odd that other people do not see the same thing as they do, as if this is highly unusual and unexpected. Does the fact that different people see colors differently not a well-known fact? Seriously?
I've already mentioned about the limition of the human eye, and why it is really not a very good light detector in many aspects. So already using your eyes to determine the color of this dress is already suspect. Not only that, but due to such uncertainty, one should be to stuborn about what one sees, as if what you are seeing must be the ONLY way to see it.
But how would science solve this? Easy. Devices such as a UV-VIS can easily be used to measure the spectrum of reflected light, and the intensity of those spectral peaks. It tells you unambiguously the wavelengths that are reflected off the source, and how much of it is reflected. So to solve this debate, cut pieces of the dress (corresponding to all the different colors on it), and stick it into one of these devices. Voila! You have killed the debate of the "color".
This is something that can be determined objectively, without any subjective opinion of "color", and without the use of a poor light detector such as one's eyes. So, if someone can tell me where I can get a piece of this fabric, I'll test it out!
Zz.
1 comment:
We have just put up a video on physicsworld.com about another fascinating bit of optical perception called “Haidinger’s brush”. Amazingly, by staring at an image on a computer screen, you can teach yourself to "see" the polarization of light. Find out how here Your secret superpower
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