BS: What color is the universe? Beige?

Subject: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: SharonA
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 09:40 AM

I heard a news report on a local radio station this morning that says that astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have been trying to determine the color of the universe. They had announced back in January that it is green, but have now discovered that there was an error in their software program and that the universe is actually beige.

Beige... as in tan... as in "bleah". Kinda takes the edge off the thrill of the Final Frontier, doesn't it? "To beigely go where no man has gone before..."

I have two questions: (a) How did they conclude this; and (b) Why is it important to know this (what practical application is there for it)?

(Maybe I should add a third question: Why can't I get cool assignments like that at my job???)

Sharon

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: MMario
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 09:45 AM

I've always felt that the universe was a tasteful plaid of octerine and ultra-violent, with a few decorative splashes of infra-dig, completly overlayed with a rainbow of embroidered motifs in various jeweltones with additional areaqs of textural variation.

YMMV

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 09:57 AM

Universe is beige, astronomers say (from National Post)

The Universe is not turquoise - it's beige (from New Scientist)

~Masato

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 10:01 AM

Most of the articles on google still show the green. This one gives some good info as to why they were looking: click here

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: mooman
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 10:12 AM

Even with a defined wavelength the colour will still be subjective as everyone perceives colour slightly differently.

mooman

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: MMario
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 10:16 AM

true - but what they are really doing is taking an averaged spectrographic analysis of the universe.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 10:21 AM

Kat's and Masato's links give you all the information how it was done and why information about the spectral distribution is interesting. But why averaging and publishing an average colour?

Here's why from the authors:

We admit the color of the Universe was something of a gimmick, to try and make our story on spectra more accessible... We would like to point out that our original intention was merely an amusing footnote in our paper, the original press story blew up beyond our wildest expectations!

in plain English: We wanted to read our names in the popular press as well and not just in the scientific journals

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 06:10 PM

they could have asked my mother...(well, up to 1988)

she claimed her favorite color was SKY-BLUE PINK

...and it always seemed like a universal truth to ME!

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Amos
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 06:36 PM

This is about the ultimate in anthropomorphism thinly disguised as science, wouldnja say?

It's about as bad as pre-Copernican Catholicism.

Hang me for a heretic, but I say, "Nevertheless, it is argyle!"

Regards,

A.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Gareth
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 06:58 PM

"What colour is the Rhondda, Dad ?
They Call it Rhondda Grey"

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: SharonA
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 07:28 PM

LOL! Thanks, everyone, for your responses and for the information. I especially like kat's link to the article with the "before" and "after" swatches of color!! I'm tempted to take them to a paint store, so I can have my living room redone in Old and New Universe. Hee hee!

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Crane Driver
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 07:40 PM

Just don't tell Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen that the whole damn universe is done in magnolia ......

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Desdemona
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 08:49 PM

Yes, I was having a particularly "beige" sort of morning (packing lunches, haranguing kids into school clothes, contemplating my wokday, etc.), when I heard that on the news....hmmmmmm, sort of explains a lot in some ways, dunnit?!

On the other hand, sometimes I'm convinced it's a blazingly brilliant vermilion, but it really depends on the day!

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: michaelr
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 08:57 PM

Well, the beige is certainly an improvement over that 50s bathroom green... I would not call that turquoise.

Now I'm really interested in the color of our parallel universes!

Michael

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 12:47 AM

That'd be way over at the other end of the spectrum, right,?**BG**

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 12:58 AM

There's no end to the spectrum, just to the speccttrum visible to humans. Beige isn't a color of the spectrum, it's a mixture. I've misplaced my ICU chart, so I can't give you the chromaticity coordinates of beige until I can find it again.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 01:59 AM

It's not beige! It's aw colors, fae heaven's sake. Open yer eyes and luik at it, and ye'll see. I canna believe Ah'm even acknowledging sech a silly notion in the fairst place!

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: RangerSteve
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 06:51 AM

It's blue. Light blue during the day, and dark blue at night. These guys need to get out of their labs once in a while.

Beige, however, goes with more colors than green. I feel better knowing that the clothes I'm wearing don't clash with the universe.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 08:02 AM

Well crap! Just because beige is the universal color that goes with everything, doesn't mean it's the color of the universe! Sloppy thinking! They need to sort out decor issues from facts!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 10:29 AM

Does this mean that those with blue-green color blindness have had it right all along?

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: SINSULL
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 11:31 AM

Taupe, obviously...because taupe goes with everything.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 11:52 AM

Taupe is nice Sins.....I've just never been able to figure out what the hell color it is!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: CapriUni
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 12:10 PM

Well, if they're coming up with an overall color of the universe based on an average, then of course it will come out beige!

That's what beige is: all the colors mixed together, with a lot of white added. Anyone who's played around with the colors in their paint box knows that!

I think we should get these scientists out of their laboratories, and into a kindergarten classroom, then give them an easel, and a lot of fingerpaint (heck, they're aleady dressed in those long smock coats).

And then remind them that in the real universe, there are no averages. An average is a useful mathematical tool for wrapping your mind around really big and/or complex numbers. But when it all comes down to it, I don't really think the Universe cares if humans can comprehend it all.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Naemanson
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 12:53 PM

It just proves that scientists have a sense of humor too. The story I heard was that they were researching the development of galaxies and were studying 200 of them. One of the team suggested they had enough data to average out the color of the universe so they downloaded a program off the web and fed in their data.

Unfortunately they didn't account for something and they got it wrong. So the universe isn't turquoise but beige. Bland and average, like life in general unless you add the spice to it. I'm sure this will change too. That's the beauty of science. It is always changing and growing.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 01:02 PM

So how come so many people see things only in black and white then?

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST,SharonA at the library
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 01:56 PM

LOL! You guys are going to get me in trouble with the librarians for giggling too loudly!

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 03:22 PM

Spaw said:

"Taupe is nice Sins.....I've just never been able to figure out what the hell color it is!"

Taupe is sort of beige color. Now you know.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Gareth
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 03:33 PM

Errr ? Are we certain that it wasn't microsofts Blue Screen of Death ???

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: The Pooka
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 03:40 PM

michaelr - Yeah, the color of the parallel universes is a super question. And speaking of strings, maybe we should start another thread: Theoretically, what is the color of the rolled-up 11th dimension? I claim it's fish. Well, I'm outta here before they make me walk the planck.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Amos
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 03:46 PM

Don't worry, Pook -- in YOUR life, walking the Planck is a constant promise!! LOL!!

A.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: The Pooka
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 04:01 PM

Amos - Ha harrr! Fires them muskets an' I cut young 'arkins' t'roat!!. / Actually in my life the Planck length is more of a Promised Constant; but ye gotta Point there, I don't get out much & when I do the trips *are* kinda short. :)

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 04:29 PM

Little Hawk, there aren't many people that see things in black and white. That's very rare. Most color-blind people, like me, have troubles distinguishing colors by name because of low sensitivity in some narrow region or regions of the spectrum, but with strong lighting we can see all colors.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 05:14 PM

Entropy will get you, if you don't watch out

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Amos
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 05:58 PM

Entropy, shmentropy -- who's got the rum and cola around here? Party on, Albert!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 07:10 PM

Exactly, GUEST, which is why I say that the universe is not beige, it's all colors.

But some black activists and some white supremacists seem to see it only in black and white, while some Native American activists appear to see it only in red and white! This gets truly annoying in not too short a time (even for someone like me who just naturally loves Native American traditional values...but still can't stand fanatics or professional victims of any persuasion).

Then there are some Americans who see it in red, white, and blue! There are some Irish who see it in green and orange.

This business of assigning a specific color or set of colors to the universe is a can of worms, if you ask me.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 07:46 PM

It looks black to me, with little shiny dots every here and there...When the clouds don't get in the way. Mind, that's just a point of view.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: CapriUni
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 07:46 PM

LH -- I was going to suggest that the Universe was plaid: bright bands of color interweaving into complex patterns against a dark background.

...But I didn't want to start a debate on which clan had the truly "universal" tartan....

Meanwhile, after 5 years of living in a biege house, I'm about to go outa my mind...

Ya think we could 'round up a gang o' Catters for a painting party?

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 07:59 PM

That is an exellent idea, Capri. Make sure to serve drinks after, not before the painting is done.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: CapriUni
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 08:11 PM

LH: "Make sure to serve drinks after, not before the painting is done."

Oh, I dunno... if I serve the drinks beforehand, it might be an interesting experiment on universal non-linear patterns...

'Course, we might get the same effect if I load up the CD player with dance music from around the world, and put the settings on "random"...

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 08:35 PM

Yeah, depends on what final result you're looking for, I guess...

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Desdemona
Date: 10 Mar 02 - 06:32 PM

I see the universe as a sort of mad, Jackson Pollock on acid creation, at least the aprt *I* live in!

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: SharonA
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 09:58 AM

Little Hawk says: "This business of assigning a specific color or set of colors to the universe is a can of worms, if you ask me."

And why shouldn't it be? After all, worms are beige...

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST,Sonja
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 11:30 AM

Spaw, taupe is the color of mice (hence the name)*. What color mice, you ask? Why, taupe-colored mice, of course! (Remember the old "flesh"-colored Crayola crayon?)

Mountain Dog -- "blue-green color blindness?"

Actually, folks, the rainbow is WHITE, I guess, if you average it across the spectrum, right?

Sonja

*("taupe" is "mouse" en français.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 11:35 AM

My favorite colors were described in "A Voyage to Arcturus" -- ulfire and jale.

Or the problem in "Hitchhiker's Guide" with the sky being just the wrong shade of pink.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 06:21 AM

The one datum I've missed in the articles so far is the average colour (wavelength) of our sun, for comparison.
Disregarding (relative) intensity (which by the way is the only difference between black and white), the colour of the universe seems to me to be fairly close to the colour of our sun which makes some sense.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: The Pooka
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 02:54 PM

Guest Sonia, I thought "la taupe" was "the mole", en français. (Not the skin growth; the little nearsighted tunneler.) I looked it up one time 'cause "mole" is one of my nicknames...nyaaaah nevermind about cette merde..but is the French the same for "mouse" and "mole"? Or did I get it wrong? / Or is this just la Creepe du Thread?

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: SharonA
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 03:20 PM

By all means, let the thread creep where it will! I'm already amazed that it's up to 47 posts so far!!!

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: MMario
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 03:49 PM

chart of our suns output relative to some others

a representation of sol's spectrum

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 04:11 PM

G'day Sonja and Pook,

I sem to remember (about the nearest I get to actually remembering ...) the French for mouse being souris. We had a local (New South Wales - Australian state) politician appropriately so surnamed!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: RichM
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 06:34 PM

Beige goes with EVERYTHING.
The Creator is a smart decorator.

Rich McCarthy

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 07:55 PM

Reminds me of the story of why the senior lecturer's common room at a certain Uni was beige.
It was the only colour a committee could agree on!
Is God a committee? Surely she is not!

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 08:25 PM

God is all thangs...therefer She is both a committee and a singularity. She's fer ya and agin' ya. She's a atheist and a bible-thumpin', hellfire n' brimstone EEEvangelist! She's thuh up, thuh down, and thuh inbetween, plus the up-the-wazoo-sideways! She is and she ain't. She were, she warn't, and she will be.

And so is He!

Confusionatin' ain't it? Ah'm gonna hev me s'more moonshine an' ferfit 'bout thuh whole thang if'n Ah kin!

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 09:17 PM

Mustabin a Honkey who thought that one up. Just look at the night sky and you'll see that the universe is BLACK.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: The Pooka
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 10:54 PM

God may be a Committee, a Smart Decorator, and All Thangs Great & Small. However, according to Einstein, She "does not play dice." Uncle Albert just wasn't too sure about Uncertainty, y'see. Didn't wanna make that Quantum leap. So evidently God is omnipresent, with the exception of Las Vegas. Now what this has to do wih the Universal Hue I'll *never* know but I say Yeah! let' keep this unmoored thread a-drift! Belay that anchor! Avast them scuppers & batten down the mainmast! Ha-HARRR! We'll creep if we want to, see? After all, are we Moles or are we Mice?
Bob Bolton, nous avons les officiales mousee ici dans l'Amerique aussi, aussie. As writer David Barry so patriotically put it, "They're all idiots and I stand behind them 100%." But Vice President Cheney is our Main Mole. He's always in an underground bunker somewhere. What fear, y'know. (Fear of what, you ask? Fear Itself, sez I.)

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Mar 02 - 04:09 PM

Ha! This thread just keeps getting better all the time. I can forsee some major wars arising soon over this "What color is the universe" debate, and all kinds of possiblities for martial glory of a kind not seen since the Crusades. Have at the infidels, I say!

The Rolling Stones may agree that the Universe is black...or at least should be. The song "Paint It Black" comes to mind. Disaffected teenagers in my hometown of Orillia also seem to favour black as the basic color...if black can be called a color at all.

"Black" people, of course, are not black in the first place...nor am I white...but what's the use in trying to get anywhere with that argument?

The thing is, why go and fight over something real when you can fight over complete illusions? And it's good for the economy too...

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: JennieG
Date: 13 Mar 02 - 06:55 PM

I don't know why it can't be yellow - I like yellow - can your own universe be whatever colour you want it to be? Or does it have to be what some dreary scientist in his little lab somewhere on the other side of the world says it is?
Cheers >br>JennieG in her yellow universe.......

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Big John
Date: 13 Mar 02 - 08:48 PM

Why trouble Hubble, Just check out any bubble, Let it bob and float and wobble, You'll see rainbows on the double.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Ian Darby
Date: 13 Mar 02 - 09:03 PM

I thought it was Puce.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: CapriUni
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 12:09 AM

JennieG--

"We all live in a yellow universe, a yellow universe, a yellow universe!"

Personally, I like all the colors! And I'm keepin' 'em!

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: The Pooka
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 01:19 AM

Little Hawk - "...The thing is, why go and fight over something real when you can fight over complete illusions? And it's good for the economy too... " RIGHT ON, MAN! And it doesn't *kill* anybody eiher! All We Are Saying Is, Give Illusory War A Chance.

JennieG, I'll vote with Yue on the Hue.

- Old Yeller

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 02:31 AM

MMario, quit those clicky things! You'll give those here a dose of reality they're obviously not prepared to handle.

Wolfgang, the sun has a radiation spectrum that is pretty close to that of a 5500 Kelvin black body. How do you want to define average? Half the distance from one end of the visible spectrum to the other, or an average weighted by the energy in a constant narrow wavelength band (X/per Angstrom), or an average weighted by constant energy in a small energy band (X/wavenmber). At any rate to do it quantatively you've got to do it with X = power per unit emittance area or X = photons per unit emittance area, and these will give different averages in each case above (we can ignore the solid angle here because that will be determined by the ratio of the radius of the pupil of the eye to the distance to the sun).

Total normal incident energy on the earth with sun directly overhead, and no clouds or significant polution, is about 1350 watts per square meter (measured, not calulated from effective color temperture).

JennieG, those dreary scientists, with a little help from engineers, brought to us the internet, which gives one unprecedented power to distribute one's ignorance at nearly the speed of light, 299,792,458 meters per second.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 02:44 AM

Wolfgang, that's the technical way. There's a very simple way to get the average color of the sun. White is the reflection of all colors of the sun with the same reflection coefficient for each color. Hence the average 'color' of the sun is white. An ordinary light bulb has a color temperture of about 3200 Kelvins, and is a bit on the yellowish side. JennieG, use nothing but bright candles and you'll get your yellow world, less bright candles will give you a reddish one.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 06:06 AM

So what color is the Universe?

Really the answer is so close to white, it is difficult to say

is the authors' response here. From what I still know and what GUEST writes this is more or less identical to the colour of our sun. That sounds much better than the 'turquoise' they had announced last year.

There are some things in your lifes you can decide or at least influence yourselfes, like e.g. colour of your car, name of your child. And there are some things you cannot choose according to your wishes. It helps to know the difference.

Wolfgang

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 06:23 AM

Wolfgang, I can't figure out what might be called an meaningful 'average' [Even with the complication I left out above, the eye's photopic luminous sensitivity as a function of power at each wavelength.]

'Average' gets hard to define for any function that starts at some x = 0 where y = 0 then goes to some x where y is higher, then goes back to x = anything where y = 0. A lot can be calculated, for example, from the bell curve (gaussian distribution), but it's 'average' is something divided by 2 times infinity, which is nothing. Color as a pure spectral one is easily define by wavelength, but white to black aren't colors, and most things we see aren't pure spectral colors, and what colors we see depend on whats illuminating them. A spectrally pure blue object under illumination by a yellow sodium lamp will appear black (no color sensation visible to the eye).

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 07:12 AM

G'day again Pooka,

Thanks for the update on the American rodent/politician situation.

Here in the Antipodes, the average pollie is a more of a slightly larger rodent. A famous documentary film on my local council was called (quite appropriately!) Rats inthe Ranks.

Regard(les)s,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 01:57 PM

Hue, brightness, and saturation are the basis for the description of a psychological sensation of color, but the last I knew none of these parameters were defined quantitatively. The primary colors are red, blue, and green and the subractive ones are yellow, cyan, and magenta, where the last two are obviously not pure spectrum colors, but the first four are not defined quantatively in terms of a range of spectrum colors from any given source of radiation.

We could undoubtably make the system work for primary colors and yellow by chosing spectrum colors for blue, green, red and yellow, but that doesn't mean that the choices we make are the only possible ones that would fit the loose definitions.

It's perhaps unfortunate that the term 'color' is used in both the psychological system and the physical one loosely describing a wavelength of visible light (spectrum color).

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: The Pooka
Date: 14 Mar 02 - 09:40 PM

G'day again to yerself Bob Bolton, and *LOL*! Rats in the Ranks, to be SURE! I guess some rather rodentine individuals can be found lurkin' in th' oul' Elective Orifices, all the wide wurruld around.

Thank you too, btw, for a post I can *understand*, amidst the aforegoing forthholdings of the FizzyCysts. -- Now don'tcha be commencin' to Fizz, ye learned ladies and/or gentlemen of science; I hereby stipulate that anti-intellectual mockery & rejectionism is the last refuge of morons like me, OK? But what else can we do? We read and really TRY to understand; but there's a Mental Block. (Say what? Aaah shaddup.) All I know is, it's Yellow. (J'ever notice how much we like to say "All I Know Is..."? That has a deeper meaning, y'know. But never mind.)

All right then: what will be the sun's color when it becomes a white dwarf? Hmmph? Oh. Yeah I guess that *is* a bit Grant's Tombish. Plus it invites Sneezey and Dopey jokes. Especially Dopey. // OKOK here's one: what is the color of a black hole's hair? Hah! Trick question.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: JennieG
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 01:25 AM

Well I thank the scientists that gave us the internet! And I am sure the other stuff is fascinating too if I could only understand it - I did well in English at school but not so well in science. CapriUni I love those words - I'm sticking to my yellow universe, my yellow universe......they call me mellow yellow.......yellow is the colour of my true love's hair......etc.....
Cheers
JennieG - I think I got the < and > thingies round the right way this time -

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 02:02 AM

All any pure one spectral color is ghastly! Think about taking all your black and white photos and changing white to a bright yellow, and dustier white to grays to just dirty yellows. It's terrible. It's just black and white with the white switched to something else.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: SharonA
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 09:28 AM

GUEST: Y'mean like Ted Turner's colorized movies? *G*

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Mar 02 - 05:51 PM

Quantative specification of colors is done via coordinates in the CIE chromaticity diagram.
x, y and z are the coordinates and x+y+z=1.
White is 1/3,1/3,1/3. Standard wavelengths are;
435.8 millimicrons (Hg blue emission line) with x = .16658, y = .00886, z =.82456
546.1 millimicrons (Hg green emission line) with x = .27376, y = .71741, and z= .00883
700.0 millimicrons with x = .73467, y = .26533, z = 0.00000

A table of the coordinates of the pure spectral colors is in the AIP Handbook and the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (among other places).

The colors of the CIE chromaticity diagram. Diagram in color

Black and white only, but fuller explaination. Diagram

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Mar 02 - 12:42 PM

huh

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: The Pooka
Date: 16 Mar 02 - 01:03 PM

GUEST, thanks. JennieG and I are memorizing the table of pure spectral coordinates now. Almost done. :)

JennieG - Herrrrrrre, Yeller! Come back Yeller!...(OKOK, so that one's a Dog, so sue me. Just crying Woof here.)

Now don't get me wrong, this ain't meant as racism, just Hue-ism (Pure Spectrumism?) -

Why do them yellow girls love me so?
A-waaaay, Santy Anno!
Because I don't tell 'em All I Know**
All on the plains of Mexico!

(**Actually I did tell 'em; but after *that* 3 or 4 minutes, the conversation lagged...)

Yellow Rules the Wavelengths.

Green's nice too. Also, I'm gonna place an Orange order.

- Gandalf the White

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 12:13 AM

Pink and its triangular

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 06:56 PM

Apologies to God but as a hue-man-ist what I say is:
Red sky in the morning, Mr Red's warning,  Red sky at night – your cottage is on fire.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 08:29 AM

from space most call us azure but i prefer teal

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Genie
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 02:22 PM

Pooka,
"Taupe" may very well refer to a mole, but I'm pretty sure it can also refer to a mouse.

FWIW, "topo" in Italiano means "mouse."  [Mickey Mouse, e.g., in Roma is "Topolino"--little mouse, and many of us remember Topo Gigio from the Ed Sullivan show.]

Bob B, You're right that "souris" means mouse in French, but I could swear that you also can use "taupe," although it may be a less specific term for small rodents.  [Some languages don't distinguish among rodents as much as English does.  E.g., they may use the same word for "rat" and "mouse," and maybe "mole" as well. I've also heard some French speakers use "raton" for "mouse," though it may more appropriately refer to a rat.  A racoon [sp?] is sometimes called a "raton laveur" or "washer rat."]

I don't have my French dictionary with me right now, so I'll have to do futher research on this later unless there's a French expert Chat-de-[however you say "Mud" in French] out there who beats me to it.

Genie

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 Mar 02 - 03:09 PM

For many years we had a radio programme running on the BBC Home Service/ Radio 4 called "My Word", with Frank Muir and Dennis Norden. Towards the end, each of them had to rework a well-known phrase or saying. I think it was Dennis Norden who came up with the one about redecorating the scriptwriters' union room so it was "only a guild in a curdled beige"....

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Genie
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 11:08 PM

Well, Pooka and Bob, it looks like "vous avez raison et j'ai tort." I've checked a number of sources and they all say "mouse" is "souris" and "taupe" is "mole." Alors, pardonnez-moi.

Re color, though, it's pretty much the same thing.

Herga, if you had a chap from Kuwait toting a certain kind and color of guitar around, he could be "a Kurd and a Guild of beige," right?

Genie
[running for cover]

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: mousethief
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 03:17 AM

Raton is Spanish for mouse (for what THAT's worth). Rata is Spanish for rat. Topo is indeed Italian for mouse. Which explains what a topographical map is: one with lines so tiny and close together, it looks like it was drawn by a mouse. Or not.

The universe, as one of our guests rightly pointed out, is far and away more black than anything else, as can be readily observed on a cloudless night. If you're only averaging the stars, you're leaving out the bigger part of what is to be seen when one looks at the universe. If they averaged in all the black between and behind and around the stars, too, you might get a very sickly shade of grayish black. But probably too close to black to make much fuss over.

Alex

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: mooman
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 03:26 AM

As it's infinite I can't imagine it's infinitely beige because that would be infinitely boring. There must be some stripes and polka dots surely? Does anyone know what colour superstrings are?

mooman

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Genie
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 02:44 PM

Alex, does that make you "un ladrón de raton?"

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 02 - 05:50 AM

If you take a good eye piece 10 to 15X and look at the monitor screne you will see it is made up of three colors and black, Serraut and Monet knew this.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: SharonA
Date: 05 Apr 02 - 10:24 AM

They wouldn't have known about monitors per se but I know what you're saying, GUEST, about the use of individual colors juxtapositioned to create the same sort of perception of overall color that the brain perceives from signals transmitted by the retina.

I have to point out, though, that Claude Monet and Georges Seurat went about creating this perception in markedly different ways, and were leaders of two different (though related) artistic movements. Monet, of course, is the archetypal Impressionist (in fact, "Impression: Sunrise" gave Impressionism its name); Impressionists tried to portray visual reality accurately in terms of transient light and color. Georges-Pierre Seurat was the founder and leader of the Neo-Impressionist movement known for using Pointillism (a.k.a. Divisionism: a technique of painting tiny, detached brush strokes of different colors); pointillists were less concerned with realism than with illusion (such as portraying linear structure without lines).

But artists of both movements were pioneers; if they hadn't dared to think and paint in a way that defied centuries-old assumptions about the way we see, we might have had to wait a lot longer for the monitor and the pixel to be part of our everyday lives.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 05 Apr 02 - 01:03 PM

GREEN!!!!!! and if its not it should be!!!!!!LOL!!!

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Sorcha
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 05:14 PM

Here ya are, LJC!

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 05:22 PM

Where? I don't see him. *G*

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: Sorcha
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 05:25 PM

He asked in another thread for someone to find this one....

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: little john cameron
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 05:27 PM

Ah Cosmic telepathy Sharon. Thankee kindly Sorcha.ljc

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 05:39 PM

I figured as much, hence the *G* at the end of my post! *bigger G*

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: The Pooka
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 07:25 PM

Been awa' an' missed the other thread; but -- will ye reveal to us the Universe's Tartan, ljc? :) *BOG* (Big Orange Grin)

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: little john cameron
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 07:36 PM

That Tartan business is a bunch o' rubbish.We never had clan tartans as such,that is a fairly modern invention by the Sobieski Brithers.There is mair aboot this oan an earlier threed.ljc

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: The Pooka
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 07:42 PM

Well I'll be damned. The Sobieski Brithers, is it? OK ljc, I'll look for mair aboot it an th' ither threed. / Big Green Grin.

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: little john cameron
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 08:02 PM

Ah'll post a bit aboot them efter mah denner. ljc

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: SharonA
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 12:30 PM

Would somebody pleeeeeze tell the rest of the class what thread you're talking about? Maybe make a blueclickeything so we can go look at it?? Thanks!

Anyway, the Universe couldn't possibly have a clan tartan, could it? ...unless you consider everything and everyone in it to be a member of one universal clan... but then, you wouldn't need a clan tartan for identification....

Subject: RE: BS: What color is the universe? Beige?
From: little john cameron
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 02:30 PM

Hmmm,logical conclusion Sharon.Ah think the treed wis aboot Tartan,tho it wis a while ago.Ah'l hae a look for it.ljc