Wednesday, September 4, 2013

The Yellow Dilemma


No, I am not writing about the Maoist movement.  That is the “Red Menace”, not the Yellow Dilemma.  If you indeed thought I was writing about Chinese Communism, you might be just a little bit racist.
The yellow dilemma to which I refer is a question of physics and you know from previous posts that generally I make stuff up as I go along.  If that is your assumption for this offering, you are dead on.  Now, to set the stage:
We all learned back in the third grade that there are three primary colors; blue, yellow and red.  All other colors are the result of these three mixed together in some way, or are shades of the primary colors achieved by adding white (to lighten) or black (to darken).  This was presented in art class as a matter of dogma and no further discussion was deemed necessary.  Applied physics, the academic discipline that truly defines color, was considered too advanced for eight-year olds.
These statements are easy enough to test.  Using any color medium that can be blended (I would recommend liquid food coloring) try this experiment.  Put a few drops of blue food coloring into a glass of water and the result is blue water.  Add in the same number of drops of yellow and the result is green (green is a secondary color).  Food coloring is manufactured in green, but as you can see it is for convenience only as the color can easily be produced using blue and yellow.  The same holds true for orange, which is a combination of yellow and red.  If you doubt this, try any combination of colors and see if you can produce blue, yellow or red.  It is impossible because of their primary nature.
You might ask, at this point, “Dale, why is this so?”  To which I would respond, “You weren’t paying attention to the Aug. 22nd post, (How or Why?) were you?”  We know that this is not a why question but a how question. “How does the physical nature of light result in one’s perception of color?”  Well, I don’t know… it has something to do with the wavelength of the energy of the source of the photons to which our optic nerve responds.  It is way over my head, but I digress.
Now, to the dilemma:  My dad was an avid amateur electronics buff.  Spare time would find him out in the garage tinkering with some radio or television set abandoned by some previous owner as un-repairable.  His first “new” television purchase didn’t occur until I was thirteen.  While I did not share his talent or passion, I did stand at his shoulder asking why a lot (we now know this was the wrong question) because it was more (marginally) interesting than the homework I was avoiding.  Amid the countless facts I have not retained that he shared with me, one that I did internalize is that a color television produces a picture by illuminating the screen in response to the electronic transmission in combinations of three colors; red, blue and green.
Whoa, Nelly!  Red, blue and green?  That must be a misstatement.  “Dad, you said red, blue and green.  Certainly you meant red, blue and yellow.”
“No son, I know what I said and I know what I meant.  There are three electron guns inside the picture tube (take my word for it youngsters, back in the day televisions operated by streaming electrons at a phosphorous coated screen inside a huge vacuum tube, there were no plasma or LCD TVs) and each gun fires electrons at phosphors that are red, blue or green.  The combination of those excited phosphors creates the colors you see on the screen.”
 At this point you are feeling one of three ways; excited because you sense a challenging mystery, confused beyond belief, or on the verge of slipping into unconsciousness from boredom.  If you are in group three, just let yourself go, this isn’t going to get any more exciting.  You can go on believing what you see when you watch Real Wives of Beverly Hills are the lives of little people who live in your television.
For the thinkers among you, you are probably feeling the stirrings of conundrum.  Let’s pursue this rabbit down the hole and see what kind of cake is on the table.
“If blue and yellow make green, and the television makes only blue, red and green dots (the aforementioned phosphors) how does the television create yellow?” If that is your question, you are a thinker. If your question was, “What time is True Blood on?” you should have taken the nap option. If your question was, “Why does the television make yellow?” I give up.  The answer to that question is between you and your god.
Now, if you expect to find the answer to the question residing in this paragraph, then you don’t really understand the definition of the word, “dilemma”.  I don’t know the answer, and I have presented this query to many people far smarter than I without success, which is why I am writing this in the first place.  So, dear followers (those of you still awake), if you know HOW a television makes yellow with only red, blue and green in its color quiver, I do hope you will write and explain it to me.  If you do, and I can understand it, I will share the seemingly miraculous details with my readers and assign all credit for superior understanding to you.
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This week’s punch line: “Why the long face?”

 

 

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