Ive <ive### [at] lilysoftorg> wrote:
> Hmm, actually it is the other way round. We call this color white (some 
> call it a even a non-color) *because* it is the damn bright apparent 
> color of the sun.

  That sounds like a circular argument to me.

  Of course the meaning of the word "white" is a matter of definition,
and we define it in terms of what we can see.

  The Sun emits electromagnetic radiation in a much wider range of
frequencies than what we can see. Its highest irradiance is at what
we call visible light (and we have evolved to see that range because
that's the range where the sunlight is strongest).

  If you compare the entire spectrum of solar irradiance, the visible light
portion has relatively little change with respect to the rest. There is,
of course, a measureable difference between eg. yellow frequencies and
blue frequencies, but my point is that "the sun is yellow" would imply
that the sun does not emit blue frequencies at all, or only very negligible
amounts. That's, of course, not the case.

  "The sun is yellow" only in the sense that the highest amount of irradiance
is around the yellow frequencies. However, it's not yellow in the sense that
it wouldn't emit anything else in a significant proportion.

  This would be a very relevant question: "If the sun is yellow, how come
blue objects do not look black?"

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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