The Rayleigh scattering law tells us that the scattering of light is inversely proportional to λ⁴, which also tells us that the shorter wavelengths (like the blue light) are scattered more (1/λ⁴ is larger if λ is small) and this is why the sky is blue
@Rainmaker1973 A nice trick question is what color is the sun?
It appears white in space, but, as measured by peak photon count, it is green.
@elonmusk @Rainmaker1973 Or the material composition of macroscopic objects near our scale in size are least resonant with the median wavelengths of our visible spectrum, those being most resonant and absorbtive to our eyes, light has no color.
@elonmusk @Rainmaker1973 If we assumed the photon count to describe the color of the sun then it would actually be a deep ultraviolet purple.
@elonmusk @Rainmaker1973 The quality of color is the electron activity that is excited in our eyes by the radiation that is non-resonant or reflects off of an object, and that activity in our eyes describes color to our brain, light has no color quality inherent to it nor does physical matter.
@elonmusk @Rainmaker1973 Color itself is something that only exists in our own brain to help us navigate our environment, and for whatever reason our brains use “green” as the median range of the spectrum, which is the most abundant reflective wavelength on our planet. Colors like red are less optimized.
@elonmusk @Rainmaker1973 So for example, in history purple dyes were the most sought after colors, such as royalty would wear, because they are off to the side of what our eyes are optimized to see, because they are the rarest wavelengths that we encounter.
@elonmusk @Rainmaker1973 There may have even been a time in pre-history in which our eyes were so mal-adapted to the wavelengths that our brains now describe as “purple” that a person wearing a robe of purple would effectively be invisible, like an invisibility cloak or shroud.
@elonmusk @Rainmaker1973 Or, in the case of hallucinogenic drugs that alter color perception, this is only caused by our brains assigning colors differently, the objects seen are not changing colors, we are just relaxing the acuity of our visual sense so that this process is less precise or focused.
@elonmusk @Rainmaker1973 Lastly, if the distribution of elements on Earth were more diverse, so not mainly oxygen, silicon, iron and aluminum but a more even distribution of more elements, we would have additional pairs of colors visible to us, and if there were only two elements we would see two colors.
@elonmusk @Rainmaker1973 ( Green is not paired as it is the primary channel we pick up, the main central color, and we then assign complementary colors to the wavelengths outside of that spectrum, complimentary as they do not fall along a primary central channel. )