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Why isn't there brown light?

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    Why isn't there brown light?

    You can get white light, yellow light, green light, blue light, red light, pink light and purple light. Why don't you ever see brown light?

    #2
    Why isn't there brown light?

    Becuase it wouldn't fit into the song?

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      #3
      Why isn't there brown light?

      Brown light.

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        #4
        Why isn't there brown light?

        Hmm. Interesting, but it doesn't really answer the question as to why there isn't brown light (except on a really micro level in peacock feathers).

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          #5
          Why isn't there brown light?

          I would guess without checking Hof's link, that you could get brown light with lots of sand at sunset.

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            #6
            Why isn't there brown light?

            and after checking that link, if you hold up a brown bottle to the sun... sorry, (dont know the word here) but I am not sure that animate object clothing should count.

            (reflective, although that is exactly NOT the word I am looking for)

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              #7
              Why isn't there brown light?

              Why aren't there brown lighting-gels in theatres? Why don't you ever go into a bar that's decorated in a brown colour scheme, and it's lit brown? Why can't you get brown bulbs? If brown light exists (as Hof's link seems to show), then why is it so rare?

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                #8
                Why isn't there brown light?

                nicotine already did that job (see brown cafes in Holland)

                But I see what you are saying SR, and I think it may take a prismatic reaction of monumental proportions to get what you are looking for.

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                  #9
                  Why isn't there brown light?

                  The bottle thing is a good point. I don't have a brown bottle handy and I can't really picture it from memory.

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                    #10
                    Why isn't there brown light?

                    Shit, I posted quite a full reply to this and my web connection got buggered.

                    In essence, I think "brown" is how we perceive "dark reddish orange", and therefore we don't associate it with light sources because the high-intensity version of brown is simply seen as reddish orange.

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                      #11
                      Why isn't there brown light?

                      Brown is really dark orange, isn't it?

                      It is like asking why you don't get dark pink: you do we, just call it red.

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                        #12
                        Why isn't there brown light?

                        nice cross posting

                        And, yes, I think when I see brown, I call it red. Cos we all want a sunset of gold and red. Otherwise we drift into shittiness.

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                          #13
                          Why isn't there brown light?

                          Except that the difference between red and pink has to do with saturation, not intensity: with the amount of white mixed in, not with the overall strength.

                          These are all quite complex questions, these things about subjective light perception. Some have even proposed an important role for language and culture. I mean, wrongly, for my money, but they have proposed it.

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                            #14
                            Why isn't there brown light?

                            Here's the thing, though. If someone shines the right kind of theatrical light at a white wall, they can make it look as red (say) as if it were painted red. I can't imagine the same being possible for brown.

                            I mean, I guess it's the same for purple really. Or is it? Hmmm. You can definitely get pale violet light, but I can also conceive of a deep purple light. So it's not just cos brown is quite a dark colour.

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                              #15
                              Why isn't there brown light?

                              I think purple is easier... combination of lack of light and blue, whereas brown needs just the right combination of red, yello and (I think) a tinge of blue.

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                                #16
                                Why isn't there brown light?

                                But you can't shine black, can you? And if the hard bit of brown is the black bit, then all you are left with is orangey-red.

                                I am sure I have been in many a room with a 40W bulb glowing brown.

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                                  #17
                                  Why isn't there brown light?

                                  These are all quite complex questions, these things about subjective light perception. Some have even proposed an important role for language and culture. I mean, wrongly, for my money, but they have proposed it.
                                  I thought there was a link though. Don't some cultures fail to see a distinction between purple and black?

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                                    #18
                                    Why isn't there brown light?

                                    As I say, though, we need to distinguish two quite separate meanings of "dark": the absence of much light at all (which you might call dimness, or low brightness, or low intensity) and the absence of much white light mixed in (which you might call low lightness, or low saturation).

                                    I'm saying that our perception systems are rigged so that, uniquely, orange-red colours lose their integrity, and become "brown", when they get dimmer.

                                    I know what you mean about the wall thing, but the point is that subjective dimness or brightness of a light source is strongly influenced by the ambient light. So we only see brown when an orange-red source is dim compared to the ambient illumination. And bright ambient light would, of course, wash out your gel light on a white wall.

                                    My guess is that if, with no ambient light to speak of, you shone an orange-red gel on a white wall, then it would just be perceived as orange-red. If you then dimmed it, it would simply fade to grey as the rods slowly took over from the cones, with no "brown" stage.

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                                      #19
                                      Why isn't there brown light?

                                      Don't some cultures fail to see a distinction between purple and black?
                                      The reasoning here tends to be highly circular. "They don't have words to distinguish these colours because they don't see any difference. And how do we know that they don't see any difference? Well, they don't have words to distinguish..."

                                      More sophisticated testing protocols blow this Whorfian shit out of the water, I think.

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                                        #20
                                        Why isn't there brown light?

                                        the hard bit of brown is probably the red, with serious blue. Unless we are doing Terry Pratchett stuff, there is no black, only a serious lack of deepest blue.

                                        WE, you are probably right about this (sorry if you hadnt mentioned, but I think you may have alluded), its a lack of colour that may help, so its not about what is there, its about what is not.

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                                          #21
                                          Why isn't there brown light?

                                          Thanks for the Visage earworm, WE.

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                                            #22
                                            Why isn't there brown light?

                                            hehehe I saw that flicked it over and waited...

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                                              #23
                                              Why isn't there brown light?

                                              There is brown light. It's what shines out of my arsehole.

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                                                #24
                                                Why isn't there brown light?

                                                how do you know?

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                                                  #25
                                                  Why isn't there brown light?

                                                  For the benefit of SR, Lee lighting filters "swatchball"

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