White

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White
— Commonly represents —
lack, snow, purity, ice, peace, nothing, frost, and air
About these coordinates
About these coordinates
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #FFFFFF
B (r, g, b) (255, 255, 255)
HSV (h, s, v) (-°, 0%, 100%)
Source By definition
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

White is the combination of all the colors of the visible light spectrum.[1] White is an achromatic color, since it has no hue.

The impression of white light can be created by mixing appropriate intensities of the primary colors of light — red, green and blue — a process called additive mixing, but the illumination provided by this technique has significant differences from that produced by incandescence.

In nature, white results when transparent fibers, particles, or droplets are in a transparent matrix of a substantially different refractive index. Examples include classic "white" substances such as sugar, foam, pure sand or snow, cotton, clouds, and milk. Crystal boundaries and imperfections can also make otherwise transparent materials white, as in the milky quartz or the microcrystalline structure of a seashell. This is also true for artificial paints and pigments, where white results when finely divided transparent material of a high refractive index is suspended in a contrasting binder. Typically paints contain calcium carbonate and/or synthetic rutile with no other pigments if a white color is desired.

Contents

[edit] Etymology and definitions

The word white comes from the Common Germanic hwitaz though the Old English word hwīt.[2] The word designates the perception of light containing equal amounts of all wavelengths in the visible spectrum.

[edit] Shade

[edit] Paint

In painting, white can be crafted by reflecting ambient light from a white pigment, although the ambient light must be white light, or else the white pigment will appear the color of the light. White when mixed with black produces gray. To art students, the use of white can present particular problems, and there is at least one training course specializing in the use of white in art.[citation needed] In watercolor painting, white areas are the absence of paint on the paper. There are also speculations about the use of white and other colors.

[edit] Light

A cloud
A cloud

Until Newton's work became accepted, most scientists believed that white was the fundamental color of light; and that other colors were formed only by adding something to light. Newton demonstrated this was not true by passing white light through a prism, then through another prism. If the colors were added by the prism, the second prism should have added further colors to the single-colored beam. Since the single-colored beam remained a single color, Newton concluded that the prism merely separated the colors already present in the light. White light is the effect of combining the visible colors of light in equal proportions.

In the science of lighting, there is a continuum of colors of light that can be called "white". One set of colors that deserves this description is the color emitted via the process called incandescence, by a black body at various relatively-high temperatures. For example, the color of a black body at a temperature of 2848 kelvins matches that produced by domestic incandescent light bulbs. It is said that "the color temperature of such a light bulb is 2848 K". The white light used in theatre illumination has a color temperature of about 3200 K. Daylight can vary from a cool red up to a bluish 25,000 K. Not all black body radiation can be considered white light: the background radiation of the universe, to name an extreme example, is only a few kelvins and is quite invisible.

[edit] Objects

While the color of a light source can be reasonably measured by its correlated color temperature, a different approach is required for objects since different samples may appear white without a reference. Thus, assessment of whiteness requires a comparison. The International Commission on Illumination (CIE) prescribes one such method.

[edit] Computer color temperature

Computer displays often have a color temperature control, allowing the user to select the color temperature (usually from a small set of fixed values) of the light emitted when the computer produces the electrical signal corresponding to "white". The RGB coordinates of white are (255, 255, 255).

[edit] In human culture

[edit] Astronomy

[edit] Board Games

  • In the board game Cluedo, the maid Mrs. White is a suspect and a playing piece.

[edit] Computers

[edit] Cultural symbolism

  • White often represents purity or innocence in Western Civilization, particularly as white clothing or objects are easy to stain. In most Western countries white is the color worn by brides at weddings. Angels are typically depicted as clothed in white robes. In early film Westerns the stereotypically "good guy" wore a white hat (earning them the name "White Hats") while the "bad guy" wore black (earning them the name "Black Hats").
    • This can be reversed as a deliberate play on conventions, by having the evil character dress in white, as a symbol of their hypocrisy or arrogance. For example, Don Fanucci in "The Godfather, Part II" is an evil character, but wears an expensive all-white suit as a sign of his power and prestige.
  • In a highly-formal social function, the traditional dress for men attending is "white tie and tails"-- a white bow tie and a swallowtail coat.
  • In ancient China, white was the symbol of West and Metal, one of the main five colors.
  • In Indian tradition, white is also the color of purity and sacredness. It is also used for depicting Peace and Purity. However it is also the color of mourning. Women are dressed in white after the demise of their husband.

[edit] Ethnography

  • The term white is often used in the West to denote the race of fair-skinned Caucasoids people of European descent with pale to white skin color, whose skin color actually ranges from pink to pale brown. It has been suggested that the colors beige or peach are a more accurate representation of the color of most Caucasians. For more details, see Whites.

[edit] Geography

A white elephant in 19th century Thai art.
A white elephant in 19th century Thai art.

[edit] Gifts

  • A white elephant is a gift or possession that creates a burden or difficulty for the recipient.

[edit] Government and Industry

  • A white paper can be an authoritative report on a major issue, as by a team of experts; a government report outlining policy; or a short treatise whose purpose is to educate industry customers. It is called white paper because it was originally bound in white.

[edit] Heraldry

[edit] Horticulture

[edit] Literature

snowy landscape
snowy landscape

[edit] Magic (paranormal)

[edit] Meteorology

  • White is commonly the color of snow and ice.
  • Whiteout is a weather condition in which visibility is reduced and surface definition lost in snowy environments.

[edit] Military

  • To "show the white feather" is to display cowardice. In cockfighting, a white feather in the tail is considered a mark of inferior breeding. In Victorian England a purported coward would be presented with a white feather.

[edit] Music

[edit] Parapsychology

[edit] Politics

The White House, the residence of the President of the United States.
The White House, the residence of the President of the United States.
  • In both the French and Russian Revolutions, white symbolized royalism.

[edit] Propaganda

  • Whitewash, figuratively, means an attempt to obscure the truth by issuing a blanket of lies. See propaganda. Also, it refers to the action of burying or shoving someone's face into the snow, as a form of bullying, or harassment (generally).

[edit] Psychedelic drugs

[edit] Religion

[edit] Romantic love

  • White is the traditional color of bridal dress in both western (European) and Japanese weddings. In Western weddings, a white dress is thought to be symbolic of purity (the bride has not engaged in pre-marital sex). This is also said to be the symbolism of the veil. In Japanese weddings, white is to symbolize the "death" of their former family and their introduction into their new family.

[edit] Sexuality

[edit] Sound engineering

  • White noise, in acoustics, is a sibilant sound that is often a nuisance, although it can also be deliberately created for test purposes.

[edit] Sports

  • White is the color of the usual cricket clothing, usually referred to as 'whites'. It is a result of cricket being a summer game with players being exposed to direct sunlight for prolonged periods of time.
  • Australian Rules Football umpires' traditional uniform color is white. Nowadays most competitions (including AFL and VFL) provide other colors to ensure the umpires aren't clashing with players uniforms for higher visibility. At lower levels, however white is still the predominant color.
  • White was originally the national auto racing color of Japan until international racing colors were abandoned due to sponsorship.

[edit] Television

  • In Western TV programs, and Western movies, the "good guy" usually wears a white hat. But in the dramatic series Dallas, J. R. Ewing wears a white hat in defiance of this convention, inasmuch as there is nothing "good" about him.

[edit] Vexillology

  • Vatican City has a flag of yellow and white (although in normal European heraldry one is not supposed to use these two colors together because both represent metals--yellow represents gold and white represents silver) to show that the Church is not bound by secular rules. [10]
  • In the Ethnic Almanac, under the heading of the Irish, it says that on the flag of Ireland the green stands for the Catholics, the orange for the Protestants, and the white for the unity between them. The Almanac says about this, "No comment."

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/light/u12l2a.html#white
  2. ^ Harper, Douglas (November 2001). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  3. ^ The American Girls Handy Book, pg. 369
  4. ^ Bailey, Liberty Hyde (1917). "Senecio", The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture: A Discussion for the Amateur, and ... (HTML), 6, The Macmillan Company, 3639. Retrieved on 2008-03-03. 
  5. ^ Bailey, Alice A. A Treatise on White Magic New York:1934 Lucis Publishing Co.
  6. ^ Prophet, Elizabeth Clare The Great White Brotherhood in the Culture, History and Religion of America Summit University Press 1975
  7. ^ Web Discussion about White Lightning and Purple Haze:
  8. ^ High Times article , January 1977, by Bruce Eisner
  9. ^ Whalen, William J. The Latter Day Saints in the Modern Day World 1962
  10. ^ Flags Compton’s Encyclopedia 1958 edition

[edit] See also

[edit] External links