Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2018 November 3

= November 3 =

Name of the influence of 2 colors placed next to each other?
Good day everybody. I explain my question using an exemple. In a painting, if a Prussian blue zone is next to a yellow one, the effect is that the yellow is more visible than if it is next to a white zone. It’s not a situation of Wave interference, but we could call that an « influence ». Here are my questions : Q1) Would you use an other word than « influence »? Q2) If it’s not a physical phenomenon, so it should be a biological phenomenon in our eyes or in our brain? What is its name? Q3) Could it be because of the Persistence of vision? According to what I read in this article, it appears when there is a mouvement; my question is about a phenomenon in painting. I thank you for your help.--Jojodesbatignoles (talk) 09:13, 3 November 2018 (UTC)


 * In general the phenomenon is lateral inhibition, more specifically center-surround antagonism in a receptive field mediated by ganglion cells ; our article says retina horizontal cells and cone photoreceptors. Either way, the ganglion cells are definitely "on-center" or "off-center" and are what actually project axons to the central nervous system, so what you're seeing is based on their antagonism.  With, of course, much further processing. Wnt (talk) 10:26, 3 November 2018 (UTC)


 * The proper word would be Contrast (vision), which includes colors and their combination as factors. Artists and Designers should be aware that a part of the Population is color blind and may thus miss specific color contrast effects completely. Persistence of vision is only based on the low framerate human eyes are capable to process. --Kharon (talk) 13:00, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Might be related to the opponent process? 173.228.123.166 (talk) 01:56, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Image analysis File:Light on wall.jpg
As the caption says, I noted some coloration in the projected light suggesting a prism or lens off frame, making this image more interesting than just projected light on a wall.ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 22:53, 3 November 2018 (UTC)
 * The user is still active. Did you ask him about it? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 02:10, 4 November 2018 (UTC)


 * I hadn't, but will certainly consider doing so. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 08:18, 4 November 2018 (UTC)