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One More Thing - Litterbox Comics
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this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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No, they are transparent. “Color” as would be defined by a child is a phenomenon resulting from white light having some of its spectrum absorbed by a surface, and the resulting visible light diffusely reflected and absorbed by their retinal cells. Even ignoring absorption of narrow frequency bands, individual atoms reflect far less than 1% of the light that encounters them. Color is a phenomenon that relies on the bulk effect of lots of atoms working together. In the same way, a drop of water looks transparent, but get enough of it together and it becomes shades of blue or green, and eventually almost black.
I would disagree. Elements have an emission spectrum and emit visible light when excited electrons drop to a more stable orbital. Hydrogen, for example, emits 4 wavelengths of visible light. You can see these ias bands in a Balmer Series. The atoms emit the light instead of reflecting light.
While it’s true that atoms emit light in specific wavelengths when excited electrons drop energy levels, this isn’t the phenomenon most children would associate with something “having a color”. If you shine a white light at a yellow piece of paper, the paper would appear yellow and be described as yellow. If you shine a green light at yellow paper, it appears green, but most children would still say the paper is “yellow paper” that just looks green because of the light.
Similarly, if you ask what the natural color of a TV screen is, I think most people would say “black” even though depending on the state of the components inside it can produce different colors.
By extension, hydrogen atoms’ color would be naturally black, but if you energize it properly it can emit reddish light. That still doesn’t mean the atoms themselves have a reddish color.
(Not the same person)
I disagree, but I appreciate the reasoning behind your opinion.
If a lot of water molecules look blue, then what, if not the water molecules, have that color? Just because it's faint doesn't make it colorless. (Water is molecules, but the same applies to atoms)
Edit: also I would definitely call a low pressure sodium lamp orange, even if it requires electricity to run it.
Hydrogen atom color white would be blue. That's why our atmosphere is blue.