Question

Why is it that a computer monitor or a TV screen can produce millions of colors using only the 3 primary additive colors?

Likewise, how can a printer print millions of color using only the colors of magenta, cyan, and yellow?

How are the primary additive and the primary subtractive colors related?

Answers

bobpursley
This has little to do with physics. THe colors don't really add, but the brain senses a new color. The (human) eye consists of three types of cones, each sensitive to a different color range. When colored light strikes the eye cones, the sensations sent to the brain gives sensations of a combination of color, which the brain registers as a "single" color. Differences in how the eye cones react to different colors also accounts for some color "blindness", and why some humans see some colors differently. So you question is really a biological one, asking how humans are different from other animals, how human eye cones vary from person to person, and how the brain classifies information (and interprets it).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_color

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