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Red, green, and blue are the primary colors of light—they can be combined in different proportions to make all other colors. For example, red light and green light added together are seen as yellow light. This additive color system is used by light sources, such as televisions and computer monitors, to create a wide range of colors. When different proportions of red, green, and blue light enter your eye, your brain is able to interpret the different combinations as different colors.

My question is can the eye distinguish between light of the pure wavelength corresponding to yellow(monochromatically yellow) and a mixture of red and green light that also produces the sensation of yellow in our eyes?

The question is related to the question asked here: Why does adding red light with blue light give purple light?

But my specific question is whether the eye can distinguish between the mixture and a pure wavelength of purple.

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Abhijeet Melkani
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1 Answers1

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No, you can't, because the RGB cones in your eyes are stimulated in some way from yellow and if you stimulate them so they will send the brain the same signal - in the end of the day your brain only gets a signal and interprets it, if you cheat it with the source of the signal - you have no way of finding out.

But, people with glasses sometimes differentiate between a mixture and monochromatic light, that is because their glasses suffer a bit from dispersion, so each color in a mixture of light does a slightly different way and find itself on a different place on your retina.

Ofek Gillon
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