80 True Colors

CHAPTER 1 What Is Color? COLORS CAN CHANGE THE WAY WE FEEL AND EVEN OUR BEHAVIOR. BUT WHAT ARE THEY? Seeing things in color is something we rarely think about. It's something we enjoy: a beautiful flower garden, a brightly colored bird, or a bride's wedding dress. And colors can also be used to tell us what to do and what not to do: a green traffic light means we can go, a person with a white flag wants to stop fighting and talk, and a red sign can mean danger. But why do we see different colors? Color is really light. Light travels in different wavelengths. The colors we see depend on the type of wavelength that something reflects. For example, when a ball appears to be red, the wavelength it reflects is long. If a ball seems to be blue, the wavelength it reflects is short. The green wavelength is somewhere in the middle. These three colors, red, blue, and green, are called primary colors.

When light wavelengths reach the eye, they act on special nerve cells called cones. These cones send an electrical message to the brain, and the brain tells us which color we have seen. In the human eye, there are three types of cones connected to the primary colors. And the color we see will be a result of their shared action. When light is reflected from a tomato, for example, only the red cone will send a message to the brain. So we will see red. When all three types of cone receive the same amount of red, green, and blue wavelengths, we see white. This is because white reflects all the light wavelengths it receives. Something black reflects no light wavelengths at all, so in science, black is not really a color.

We see other colors such as orange, purple, or yellow when all three cones are in action, but receive different amounts of wavelengths. Then the primary colors are mixed. Some people are color-blind. In most cases, this doesn't mean they can't see any colors. It means they have difficulty seeing the difference between some colors, usually red and green. These people are born with one cone that doesn't work well. Interestingly, color blindness is much more common in men than in women. Although about eight percent of men are color-blind, only around one percent of women are.

Many animals don't see colors like humans do. Birds, for example, see more colors than we do because they have four or more types of cones. Dogs and cats have only two types of cones, connected to blue and green, and they see fewer colors than we do. But color isn't just a scientific matter. It's part of our personality and the way we think and behave. Color is deep in our culture, and it helps us experience our world. For example, in recent years, the color green has become an international symbol for taking care of the environment. Thanks to colors, we can understand each other in spite of nationality or language. But be careful! It's not always that easy. What color would you expect a Chinese bride to wear on her wedding day? Or a traditional Irish bride? Read on and find out!

CHAPTER 2 The Color of Culture THINK ABOUT THE COLOR WHITE. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU? FRESH SNOW, PEACE, OR UNHAPPINESS? YOUR ANSWER WILL DEPEND ON YOUR CULTURE! In ancient china, if a young bride told her parents she was getting married in white, they probably wouldn't allow the marriage to happen. This may seem strange to you because in many Western countries white is a typical color for a bride's wedding dress. But in China, the color white is a symbol of unhappiness and death. Not a good choice of color for a wedding, then! In fact, colors have been used since the beginning of time as symbols of the way people think and behave. In Ireland, for example, brides traditionally wore blue to show that they were pure. These color symbols depend

on the culture and history of a society, and they can be very different from country to country. This can make international communication difficult at times. What do you think the color red means? Traditionally in China it's the symbol of happiness and good luck. People often give money in a red envelope as a present at weddings or the New Year. In India, red is a symbol of pure things, and it is used a lot during marriage ceremonies. On the day of the wedding, the bride's hands are painted with a reddish- brown dye called henna. She wears a red dress. And before the bride enters her new home, she washes her feet in red water. Red is used as a symbol to show how the girl stops being a child and starts life as a woman.