As soon as man came into existence, he looked around and was first introduced to colors. He took these colors, tinkered with them a bit and started using them. One of them, perhaps one of the oldest, is that we painted walls using white, made it the indispensable color of our clothes, used its color in the objects we created, and today, thanks to technology, we can even use it on our screens.
It is possible to consider the color white from two different perspectives: cultural and scientific. Of course, we will talk about the cultural part of the work, but since it is a color we have used for thousands of years, we can easily get lost if we dive into it. The scientific part is full of remarkable details. So much so that some interesting information will radically change all the ideas that come to mind when you see the color white.
Information about white color:
- Early humans used white color on cave walls.
- We didn’t just use the color white, we gave it meanings.
- The color white is the international symbol of surrender.
- Actually there is no white light.
- The concept of white noise also derives from white light.
- The color white has no shades.
- For a while, using white cosmetics meant getting poisoned.
- We see the white color in objects thanks to light.
- Over the years, different political meanings have been attributed to the color white.
Early humans used white color on cave walls:
Imagine you are a primitive artist living in the cave period. What colors would you use to leave a mark on that wall? When you look around, the first things that greet you would be the black of carbon stones, the red tones of ferrous soil, the brown of magnesium and the white of limestone. It was during this period that people first became acquainted with the color white. Approximately 20 thousand years ago, people used white color effectively to make cave paintings.
We didn’t just use the color white, we gave it meanings:
The color white is considered the symbol of purity and innocence throughout the world. This is why popes have worn white since the 16th century. The ihram worn by Muslims who want to be a pilgrim is also white. During Roman times, men could wear white only after they became adults. In Shinto, the Japanese religion, sacred places are white.
There is another interesting detail among the meanings of the color white. Although the color white is considered purity and innocence throughout the world, it has a different meaning for Indians. An Indian woman wears white clothes after her husband dies because, according to their belief, white color represents mourning. Who knows how strange it seems to Indians to wear a white wedding dress during a marriage ceremony in Western culture.
The color white is the international symbol of surrender:
Let’s remember the movies we watched: A man surrounded by enemies realizes that he has no escape and ties a white cloth to a stick and shows it to the other party to show his surrender. This is not just a movie fiction, the white flag was adopted as an international symbol of surrender in the Geneva Convention in 1949. The first use of the white flag for surrender was during the 100 Years’ War between England and France in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Actually there is no white light:
We are sure that even while reading this article, you see white light reflected from some parts of the screen, but actually that light is not white light. Don’t worry, your eyes are strong, in fact they are very strong because they successfully show you light of more than one color as white. As proven in an experiment conducted by Isaac Newton in the 17th century, white light is actually a light that contains almost all colors. The white light you see on the screen is a mixture of red, green and blue colors, also known as RGB.
The concept of ‘white noise’ also derives from white light:
You may have heard of the concept of white noise, which is used especially to put babies to sleep soundly. This sound, which continues non-stop, is not actually a single sound but a combination of all sounds. Just as white light is a combination of light of all colors, white noise is a sound created by the combination of almost all sound frequencies. Maybe that’s why it’s so comforting.
The color white has no shades:
In daily life, we use different terms such as dark white, light white, but actually all of these are wrong because white is an achromatic color, that is, it has no tones. Colors that we think are shades of white, such as ivory, cream, beige and pewter, are actually created by shading the white color or mixing it with different colors. We can call it off-white tones. The color that really has shades is black.
For a while, using white cosmetics meant being poisoned:
When you visualize the cosmetic products you use, you will see that almost all of them are white. The main reason for this is to highlight their cleansing properties. It is an old tradition for cosmetic products to be white. So much so that manufacturers were using lead to whiten the color of cosmetic products until the 20th century. After it was discovered that lead is a poisonous metal, different pigments began to be used for this process. Who knows how many people were poisoned by lead back then?
We see the white color in objects thanks to light:
In fact, we see all the colors on objects thanks to light. Unlike others, the white surface reflects the light falling on it diffusely, without absorbing any part of it. Regardless of the wavelength and spectral distribution of the light, the lightest color we can see is white due to this non-absorption reflection. This is also why we see other colors around the white color more clearly.
Over the years, different political meanings have been attributed to the color white:
During the French Revolution, rebels used a white flag. The name of the army consisting of nationalists, liberals and monarchists in the Bolshevik Revolution was the White Army. In the Finnish Civil War, a group also showed itself in white. The revolution that ended the shah in Iran is known as the ‘White Revolution’. The Ku Klux Klan, the racist organization founded after the American Civil War, wore white clothes. During Nazi Germany, there was an anti-violence group called ‘White Rose’. In other words, the color white has been used by different groups with different meanings in every period.
We talked about interesting information, some of which you may have heard for the first time, about the color white, which we have used and attributed different meanings to since the beginning of humanity. What does the color white mean to you? You can share your thoughts in the comments.
If you want to learn other interesting information about colors, you can also take a look at these contents:
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