Is there a color that humans have not yet discovered?

In 1666, Newton discovered the different frequencies of color light through a trigonometric mirror, and people gradually realized that the light we perceive comes from a combination of compound light, and the different colors we can perceive are related to the reflection of different colors of light. From the current situation, there are more than 1 million types of colors that can be seen by humans with normal eyesight and vision (women can discriminate 50 colors higher than men), so is there a color in the world that humans have not yet discovered?

From the point of view of the light emitted by the sun, due to the internal fusion proton-proton chain reaction process photons, need to experience repeated absorption and release of internal plasma, every time it is absorbed and released, its energy will be a certain degree of decay, according to the photon in the sun's internal experience time is different, then the energy carried after escaping the surface of the sun will also have Differences, so the formation of the sun's light consists of different frequencies of photons, both the highest energy, the shortest wavelength (10 ^ - 12 meters) of gamma rays, but also the lowest energy, the longest wavelength (10 ^ 4 meters) of radio waves, in the middle there are X-rays, ultraviolet, visible light, infrared, we can capture only a small part of the human eye, that is, visible light, its wavelength range of 380 nanometers to between 760 nm.

In visible light, through the refraction of the prism, people also understand the existence of a variety of monochromatic light, of which the wavelength from long to short can be divided into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet seven different combinations of these seven colors of light, can produce more colorful other colors (white, black and gray is not strictly speaking a color, but reflect the object brightness of grayscale). The reason why we can feel the brightness of the human eye, is mainly from the direct light from the light source or the light reflected from the object, which enters the human eye, through the cornea, lens, vitreous and other structures of the eye, forming a real image on the retina, and then stimulate the photoreceptor cells on the retina to form a stimulus signal, through the nervous system to the cerebral cortex, and finally under the processing of the optic nerve system to form our understanding of The final processing of the optic nerve system forms our judgment of the intensity of external light, the size, color, shape, and distance of objects.

The reason why objects have different colors is that different objects have different absorption levels for different colors of light. If the object can absorb color light other than red, then the red color light is reflected out into the human eye, and we see the object appears red. If the object can absorb all the color light or can reflect all the color light, then we see the object will appear black or white. The different combinations of reflected color light determine the variety of colors we see in the object.

Under normal circumstances, there are only three kinds of cone cells: red, green, and blue, which are extremely sensitive to the corresponding color light stimulation. Under the judgment of the optic nerve system and the visual center, these different stimulus signals will eventually combine to form a color information output, forming the color we finally see. Therefore, the color we see depends on the information feedback from the visual cone cells, and of course, the most fundamental is the combination of color light forms in the light source. For people with congenital deficiencies or defects in the color cone cells, the colors they see around them will be significantly different from those of normal people, which is the reason for color blindness.

For those few people who have four types of color cone cells, or some other animals with more developed cone cells, the photic stimulus, especially the color stimulus signal, is significantly more complex and strong after the external light enters their eyes (it is known that people with four types of color cone cells can see 100 million colors), and what they see is a more brilliant world composed of more colors, but normal humans But normal human beings cannot imagine what kind of existence those extra colors are.

It is because the human eye can perceive color, depending on the degree of sensory cone cells, so the human judgment of color, there will certainly be a kind of upper limit, beyond this range, people will not be able to help, there is no way to judge the difference between the new color and the existing color, the upper limit, 1.2 million kinds of men, women for 1.8 million kinds. This is only the value from the physiological point of view, in our daily life, we for the same color family of different colors, and the ability to distinguish between the theoretical limit is not possible, generally more than 60,000 kinds after it is very difficult to distinguish.

Through the above analysis, we can see that the variety of colors is a concept created by human beings themselves, and it is also a concept judged based on the physiological function of the human eyes and the participation of the nervous system, the colors of the world, which exist objectively, do not change with the physiological function of human eyes and the judgment of the nervous system. Therefore, how many colors there are in the world is a subjective expression and display, limited by the physiological function of the human eye, we can no longer feel more colors, which is like a color monitor, even in the mode of true color 24-bit map, theoretically able to form more than 16 million colors, while we can not identify the part of the new colors beyond the physiological limit. Therefore, the colorful world, perhaps the illusion of the human eye, but also can be put in another way, it is the limitations of the human eye, we have never been able to see a more colorful world.