This is called metamerism. It can be a practical issue if two pigments have the same color under one light source, but a different one under another. You want your artificial teeth to have the same color as your real teeth in sunlight, led light, and a classic lightbulb for example.
replyWell, now that you mention it, I'd just like to remind you that people are a lot weirder than you might think! Having incisors to be a different colour (say, a brilliant red) under artificial lights could definitely be a thing people desired..
replyA flower, a picture of the flower in print and the picture shown on a screen will all have different spectra, but look the same.
replySee the first minutes of this video, where he has a spectrum analyser: https://youtu.be/-DyrBDsKA5s?si=mRJPT2ecy6NqpB4N
That video was super interesting, thank you!
replyWell, the most common example si precisely screens, no? A screen displaying the color yellow is actually a spectrum of red and green peaks, stimulating your red and green cones just like a spectrum containing a single frequency of the color yellow.
replyOh right. I feel silly for forgetting about that even though it's mentioned in the article. Thank you!
replyWould not the definitive answer to this be a computer screen.
replyOn one side you have an apple, illuminated by natural sunlight. it fills your eye with a rich texture of subtly mixed frequency's covering the whole gamut of visible and invisible light. On the other a picture of an apple composed of brutal pure frequencies only emitting at 430, 540, 570 Nm. Can you tell the difference?
That makes sense. I feel a little silly that that's not something I considered despite the article saying exactly that. I think I got caught up in the details.
replyNo, no, the question was great. I read all the answers carefully and I feel a bit smarter now. Thanks for asking it!
reply