• Question: If things are only coloured because they reflect a certain colour of light, what colour would everything be if there was no light? Would it technically be a colour or would it be something else?

    Asked by smint to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 27 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      If there was no light, we would have to adapt to other ways of sensing things, like smell or touch, or electrical field (like sharks). We might still build up a picture of the world about us based upon this, but it would seem very different.

      I think the first place to look is how things in the deep ocean or which has evolved in dark caves see the world.

      And, if there was no light, I guess everything would be black – or is the colour of something to do with its potential to reflect light? Perhaps the latter is true, as I would still call my shirt blue if I was in a dark room.

    • Photo: Philippa Bird

      Philippa Bird answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      If there was no light, we would see black, but I guess as Tom said things would still have the potential to be coloured.

    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      If there was no light, everything would still be the colour that it is today. Colour is just the word that we use to describe how our eyes detect the light that is reflected from something.

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