Lovecraft’s described a color outside of the visible spectrum in his novel Color Out of Space. This color was emitted from an alien creature which destroyed an area later in the. Even though the idea of a color that is outside the spectrum sounds illogical, but magenta is such color. We can see magenta, but it doesn’t exist in the spectrum.
Magenta is loosely defined as purplish-red or reddish-purple. In color wheels of the RGB, it is located exactly midway between red and blue. On the visible spectrum, puple and red are at the opposite ends of the visible spectrum and have very different wavelengths.
Humen eyes have rod cells and cone cells. Rods are sensitive to light intensity and movement. Cone cells are the preceptors of color and fine details. There are 3 types of cone cells detecting red, green and blue light separatively. Red is long wavelength, green is medium, and blue is short. Looking at the apples will fire the red cone cells, while looking at the sky will fire the blue cone cells. The color input for the brain is created by the 3 types of cone cells together.
The brain average the received wavelength to determine the color. Green is the result after it averages the red and purple wavelength, but it doesn’t make sense to the brain since the green cone cells are not receiving the green light. Therefore, the brain makes up magenta.
Sources:
- Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/D6mZtrRZVGs
- Medium: Magenta: The Color That Doesn’t Exist And Why
- YouTube: Magenta Is All In Your Head