Have you ever wondered what mix of colors you see when you are seeing blue?
Like what wavelengths we're seeing?
Yeah, the idea that we are looking at wavelengths and perceiving it as color is bizarre to me. I wonder what wavelengths we are actually seeing when we see blue.
Did you know other animals like the mantis shrimp can see something like 4 times the amount of wavelengths we can? Imaging a color you can't see!
That is pretty crazy to think about. I wonder if the mantis shrimp sees more colors in between colors. Like, blue is between violet and green on the spectrum. I wonder what the mantis sees between blue and violet.
If you like podcasts, radiolab did a really good one on that topic!
I like radiolab! They had another podcast talking about how in the Middle Ages people dyed their clothes with vegetables. They used something called woad before they used the indigo plant for blue.
Huh, I wonder how difficult it was to get their clothes blue. Do you think it was a fancy color like purple?
It likely was. Artists during that time used it in windows of cathedrals, and Chinese artists used it on porcelain. It was probably a sign of wealth to own things that were blue.
It's weird what we take for granted now! I own so many blue things, especially clothing.