CosmoTheAstronaut

CosmoTheAstronaut t1_irvk88d wrote

Remember that colors really are in the eye of the beholder. The range of wavelengths and the number of visible colors vary from species to species. (And to a smaller degree: even from individual to individual.)

For example, what appears to be bright yellow to the human eye could be:

  • pure light at a wavelength of ~580nm (e.g. the yellow of the rainbow),
  • a mix of red at ~440nm and green at ~530nm (e.g. pure yellow on a computer screen),
  • any mix of the former two options.

Therefore, it was not the trees that evolved to show exactly these colors, it's rather humans that evolved to see these colors in a specific way. To another species, the color of trees in fall might look quite unspectacular.

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