Er, no…black is not the ‘opposite’ of white. Neither, for that matter, is cold the opposite of heat. This is physics 101.
There is really no such ‘thing’ as cold at all. There are only degrees of heat. Something is not cold because it has some ‘cold’ element in it…but because it has less heat. There is only heat relative to absolute zero. Even a temperature of 0.000001 degrees above absolute zero is thermodynamically heat…not cold.
It is the same with black. There is no such physical thing. An object emitting zero photons is not actually emitting anything at all for you to ‘see’. Your brain invents ‘black’ to experience this…but there is no such substance actually out there. There is only light, or the absence of it.
Zero is not the opposite of 1. Black is zero light. It is not a colour. It is not even a physically existent thing. It is the equivalent of zero. To argue that black is the opposite of white is like arguing that zero cows is the opposite of 1 cow.
In science, black is the absence of light. And colour is a phenomenon of light. But a black object or black images printed on white paper are made from pigment, not light. So artists must use their darkest colour of paint to approximate black.
True black and true white are rare.
What you see as a pigment with a black colour or a light with a white colour actually contains various light or dark colours. Nothing can be pure white or pure black, except unfiltered sunlight or the depths of a black hole.
Just like with hot and cold- there is no way to reach absolute heat or absolute cold. Absolutes are just not possible or confirmable.
The speed of light has also never been accurately measured nor has zero velocity.
Absolutes cannot be confirmed. Everything we know are various degrees.
Which is related to enthalpy and entropy. More simply put, it’s the transference of energy to or from a system to its surroundings (the reverse applies as well). Heat is simply a way to measure that.
Which gets into black body radiation, and why the absence of light emitting objects tend to absorb heat and energy, whereas light emitting objects tend to emit it.
But the real question is,
Where are the animal right activists when one talks about Schrodinger’s cat?
I was in a hurry and made a huge mistake. I’ll correct that now.
Black and white are not to be confused with light and darkness. The website I copied that from (to save time) used them interchangeably which isn’t accurate. Black and White are shades of color and nothing more. Light and darkness (or light and the absence of light) were the correct terms.
My keyboard that I’m currently using is indeed black. It’s not true absolute darkness, but it is indeed black. The letters on the keyboard are white. They are not true absolute light, but they are white. If the keyboard truly was absolute darkness, there would be an empty void in front of me that I couldn’t perceive. It would appear as a featureless void of darkness. If the white keys were truly absolute light, they would blind everyone in the shop instantly. No, these are merely colors- or shades of colors.
These colors, or shades, are opposites.
The closest we can come to true absolute light or darkness would be staring directly into a white sun or staring directly into a black hole. Both are pretty sure to get you killed because you’d need an unfiltered and unobstructed view. Well, a total solar eclipse comes close to absolute darkness. That’s a sight to behold!
White and Black are not to be confused with light or absolute lack of light. I apologize for my earlier error.
I’m not clear why you needed to re-explain something I’d already explained totally scientifically…and still get it wrong.
There is actually no such thing or substance as ‘black’. It is, by definition, the absence of any light. Nothing travels from a black object to your eyes. Rather, your brain interprets the absence of any signal as the made up conscious experience of ‘black’.
It is not. Darkness is. The abscence of light is darkness. Black is a shade of color. We can see definition in things colored black. That is impossible if it absorbs all light.
If nothing travels from black to my eyes, then wearing a black suit would turn me into a featureless void in space.
This material comes the closest we can get to actually absorbing ALL light and not even it absorbs ALL light. It only absorbs 99% of all light. There is still some that gets reflected back.
Black is very dark and yes- can be very absorbent, but it is not a Black Hole. It is not completely the “absence of all light”. We have no confirmation that Black Holes even absorb all light because we can’t study that.
Nothing on Earth absorbs all light. Black is a color. Darkness is the absence of light.
“Black is white, up is down, and short is long” – Weird Al Yankovic.
