Every Other Video About Color is Wrong

[@johnford7847]

I taught introductory chemistry for 35 years. I wish I'd had this video to show. An excellent introduction/overview of the relationships between color, light and molecular structure. Thank you for sharing.

[@AlexDainisPhD]

@@johnford7847 John, this means a lot. The whole team put a lot of work into this video, and I’m so so glad you found it valuable. Thank you!!

[@BillAnt]

Well at 5:10 lol Jokes aside, props to all the folks who watched this video instead of of some brainless TikTok crap. :D

[@DanteGabriel-lx9bq]

I can not emphasize enough how beautifully well-made this video is. I've learned things like Moleculer orbital theory, antibonding, the electromagnetic spectrum, etc... for a while, and this video summons things up so perfectly in a linear explanation that is just like recaping all the hunders of videos I've watched about it, in just 21 minutes. Despite that, it manages to teach something new, too. I had no idea that the electronic configuration (despite all the videos I've watched, which makes the title of the video that more credible) played a role in the reflection of photons and it's color. The vibration of moleculas and how it influences the greenhouse effect was intruced by your college on this very channel, talking about how polar moleculas themselves absorb photons differently and reflect light, but the heavy water example perfectly click. I'd like to see an exotic planet with yellow water now!

[@mastershooter64]

Next Video: The Last Video About Color is Wrong pulls up with quantum electrodynamics and quantum chromodynamics

[@YunxiaoChu]

???

[@TheDarkBoy8910]

I'd so watch that

[@funtitan4378]

Chromodynamics? I don’t know if 1.5 GeV photons count as a “color” but if they want to get into inelastic nuclear scattering I’m here for it

[@ryandean3162]

I was thinking the same thing when they started talking about light being waves with constructive and destructive interference towards the end, when every time we detect or measure or see light in any way light is particles, and the interference isn't interference of the light itself, but interference between the probabilities of where the particle could be when detected.

[@BillAnt]

My first thought too. heh Sure, one can go lower and lower but it's unnecessary imo.

[@Tinil0]

This is one of the few channels with multiple hosts where I love both of them equally. So great.

[@PTT9]

The production and wardrobe of this video is one of your best!

[@BillAnt]

Yeah but at 5:10 lol

[@eaterdrinker000]

@@BillAnt : But I like that dress. To me, it looks white and gold. To others, blue and black.

[@landonblackburn4084]

The way you pronounce "L" is interesting and smoothe, just like that video! (it was my 1st of yours) The style of editing, the comfortable demeanor, the self-deprecating humor (hand-drawn wavelengths😂), etc. It all makes the new & old knowledge go down smoothly. We'll done 👍.

[@landonblackburn4084]

The way you pronounce "L" is interesting and smoothe, just like that video! (it was my 1st of yours) The style of editing, the comfortable demeanor, the self-deprecating humor (hand-drawn wavelengths😂), etc. It all makes the new & old knowledge go down smoothly. We'll done 👍.

[@alexanderkaiser3062]

Man, the moment Molecular Orbitals popped on screen I had a traumatic flashback to P-chem, and its follow-up class (that I had to take my final semester) Group Theory, Spectroscopy and QM. This video did an INCREDIBLE job accurately and concisely condensing a significant portion of the conceptual matter of those classes down to 20 minutes. Really wish it had existed before I had taken those classes. Once again, absolutely brilliant job communicating across that much at that granularity so effectively.

[@Vaaaaadim]

If a video is wrong because it misses some details, then most if not all videos on anything are wrong.

[@timchapel77]

Including this one, multiple ways.

[@custos3249]

Welcome to reality. Until we manage to understand 100% of the universe, there will always be inaccuracies. What a revelation.....

[@critiqueofthegothgf]

hy·per·bo·le: exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. commonly referred to as a literary/rhetorical device or figure of speech. the concept is often times introduced in elementary level English courses...

[@isodoublet]

In fact this video commits a much more serious error with the repeated mentions of energy "interacting" with things.

[@d51d_46]

If it weren't for the PBS tag in the thumb nail, I would never have clicked on a video with such a click-baity title. Just saying.

[@edgeeffect]

Chemistry: That place where physicists and biologists go to argue with each other.

[@ACSReactions]

The arguing is a welcomed perk.

[@HunterHogan]

Dear Editor: you nailed it. This is better than at least 20% of Academy Award nominees.

[@MTSUChemistry]

I’m taking Inorganic right now and have been so lost with MO theory and having it drawn out and explained how you did cleared a lot of things up.

[@MTSUChemistry]

If you could publish a semester’s worth of inorganic chemistry videos, it would be much appreciated 😅

[@geocyclist]

OK, cool color vid, but tell me, how did you get the quality of your voice so uniform in so many different locations? Overdub? (great lip-sync, if so!), super-duper mic? AI?

[@dre-explores]

Yes! It seemed like the audio is out of sync. But your observation that it's all voice-over could be what's going on.

[@AlexDainisPhD]

This is Elaine, producer and editor extraordinaire, working some post-production magic!

[@nickcaruso]

When blueberry juice in my tapwater is above a certain concentration, it looks purple-red, but as I dilute with more tapwater it turns a faint blue at some point. I always assumed it was an acid-base titration thing. Now I'm going to have to try it wilth distilled water. Fascinating.

[@dancoroian1]

@@nickcaruso I think if you dilute (tint) most shades of purple enough, they will appear blue at some point before they appear completely colorless. Could be wrong but that's my intuition...

[@DeRien8]

The anthocyanins in blueberries are pH indicators. More acidic, more red, more basic, more blue to even greenish. Same thing with red cabbage, blackberries, violets, lots of red-purple plants

[@philouzlouis2042]

The wax coating has little value to me (chemical engineer specialized into organic chemistry); blueberry color is like most colors out of nature acid-base indicators (this is true for flower pigments, plant pigments, fruits pigments,... and many organic molecules even the fluorescent ones that she displayed like quinin (fluorescence of quinin change with pH and quinin sparkling soda is acidic- IIRC even there is an extrinction pH for that fluorescence) or her specific wood extract as she showed. The fact there are different shades of color as function of particle size is of course possible so if the stuff cristallizes differently it wil display differently, if it is crushed finely it wil become lighter. Strangely she didn't mention quantum dots, nor gold that shines purple or blue as a function of its thickness (gold film plated glases of welders to protect eyes from bright light allows to see life in purple or coloidal gold purple solution turns blue if pregancy hormon is detected into pregant woman urine test by agregation of gold particles. The color of blueberry juice in your case is linked to dillution and probably alkalinity of your water (here in Brussel we have some lime (CaCO3) into the drink water what makes it faintly alkaline; and this turns red cabage juice blue-purple when rincing and cooking (the red is reactivated by adding some acid into the legume (vinegar, lemon or apple). Red cabage juice is an incredible pH indicator giving nearly all the pallet of colors of the rainbow in various pH-pOH concentrations; and this is about as good as former lab used litmus paper. In her video is displayed a variation of color of the blueberry juice once dispersed onto paper and this is probably due to pH change because paper is slighly alkaline and whitened by unsoluble CaCO3 (just like bleached by NaOCl-NaOH so leaving some NaCl and Na2CO3 behind). Paper tends to yellow otherwise upon ageing and contact with finger sweat (containing carboxylic acids). Regards, PHZ (PHILOU Zrealone from the Science Madness forum)

[@dancoroian1]

12:03 "THIS is the best explanation I have seen..." _expects viewers to just be familiar enough with Veritasium to identify the vid from a tiny zoomed-out view, and fails to provide the source in any fashion_ What are we doing here?? 🤨

[@BillAnt]

I was watching an Asianometry video about semi-conductors, and remember the parts of about the band-gap. This video has cleared up a few things for me.

[@dancoroian1]

@@BillAnt okay; I'm not sure I see how that relates to what I was saying though...?

[@Programentalist]

Let's face it, probably everyone watching this already knows Veritasium well enough to have caught it immediately.

[@BillAnt]

​@@dancoroian1 - The time stamp you have referenced contains a part about "band gap" in semi-conductors which behave the same way. I'm sorry about the confusion, I'm just being exited about science. heh

[@dancoroian1]

@@Programentalist while I agree with the spirit of your statement, I'm certain that that's not _actually_ the case -- especially with how actively difficult they made it to even properly see what she's talking about! It's the principle of the thing...just bad practice, especially for an otherwise incredibly well-sourced and exemplary *science-focused* channel

[@michaeldamolsen]

This is a great video, excellent explanations and narration. On a small side note, I just wanted to compliment the costume department, the color coordination with the backgrounds is top notch.

[@andyburns]

Each outfit is great, but when I start watching out for the next change and counting them, it's a distraction

[@AlexDainisPhD]

Thank you! The "costume department" is just me, haha, so I really appreciate that someone else enjoys it!

[@Lbgood2121]

And audio department also, for seamless EQ.

[@AllYourMemeAreBelongToUs]

3:59 “The light waves don’t have color themselves but different trigger or eyes and visual systems in our brains to perceive different [colors].” Thank you! Oh my god, so many people think wavelength and color are the same thing it’s not even funny.

[@jkzero]

3:55 I know you not want to hear it but, is the arrow of wavelength in your hand-drawn electromagnetic spectrum pointing towards higher frequencies? Still, fantastic video!

[@sinachiniforoosh]

All of this is why I became a computational chemist! I ended up not working on anything spectroscpoy/light related at all but still

[@BillAnt]

It's definitely a fascinating field.

[@jajssblue]

The majority of explanations in science are focused and simplified in scope. This video is wrong too. Everything is multilayered and requires peeling back the details. But that's why college courses take semesters. And degrees take years. And PhDs take decades. And careers take a lifetime. Etc, etc. At some point, there has to be some level of summarization. That's not a defect, it's just the reality of learning.

[@SbF6H]

I agree. One could learn only so much about science from pop-science. It's the intricate details that matter (which are hard to infer, and understand at times).

[@ChaohsiangChen]

If you have time typing this tripe, you have time to study spherical harmonics and Bloch equations.

[@jajssblue]

@@ChaohsiangChen Well, I already did that 15 years ago. So maybe shove that in your pipe and smoke it.

[@SbF6H]

@@ChaohsiangChen He's a mathematician, not a physicist.

[@ChaohsiangChen]

@SbF6H So? Will he make an explanatory video to illustrate linear algebra with eigen function or Galois theory? Most people do not go to school to study broad spectrum of topics, and the compartmentization of fields was by design. Anything that peels away the shear dauntingnes of deep and complex topics for the masses to become more knowledgeable should be welcomed, even though I do not agree with forced pasteurization.

[@fwiffo]

Color is the psychological phenomenon that happens after light enters your eye and interacts with your retina. This is an excellent video, and it briefly touches on the biological aspect, but it actually describes how particular spectra of light is produced. That's not what color is. Different spectra can appear to have the same color. Your computer monitor can appear white even though it's got a spiky spectra of wavelengths associated with red, green and blue. The sun or a light bulb can appear the same color as your monitor even though they has a totally different, smoother spectra. Different spectrum, same colors. For a color-blind person, the world around them is doing the same things, and the electrons are doing the same things, but their retina has a problem, so they see different colors. Same spectrum, different colors. Color is not wavelength of light, and it's not the spectrum of light, and it's not the peak of the spectrum of light like some nonsense "the sun is green" videos would have you believe. It's not light at all. It's not even the interaction of light with your retina. Color is in the brain. Our eye-brain system is not a spectrometer, and it doesn't work like a spectrometer.

[@fwiffo]

The actual reality of color, as a psychological phenomenon, is *also* really fascinating, and at times disturbing, once you are forced to properly grapple with qualia.

[@fwiffo]

The best video I've seen about color which is *not wrong* is one by the channel Kuvina Saydaki. It's about how a particular spectrum interacts with our biological systems to produce color in the brain, and the math that can be used to describe that relationship.

[@tommypoulin1033]

YES, this is what I was thinking the whole video! As someone who's read a fair bit about psychophysics this video was actually quite frustrating. Edit: I mean she touches on it slightly at 3:59 but still....

[@gljames24]

That's just an elaborate way to say dominant and average color from a source is often not the same. Paints that appear to be the same color can mix to completely different colors as they are the collections of filters and we can't discern the "timbre" of color, jus the most dominant "note".

[@yohaijohn]

This dude got it right.color is a neurological phenomina.and just to add to the example you gave,you can shoot a yellow photon with just one single wave length to a human eye and see the color yellow,but you can also reach the same resulte by shooting different combination of photons.your brain will experience the same yellow color phenomena in the brain triggering by a different physical phenomena

[@DANGJOS]

Many common explanations on color are indeed wrong. They will say things like: this yellow thing appears yellow because it absorbs *all* wavelengths *except* yellow. That is so wrong it sort of drives me crazy whenever I hear it! lol. In reality, *all yellow things* appear yellow because they absorb light in the blue-violet region of the spectrum and reflect everything else. In fact, if they absorb too much of the blue portion they'll appear orangish. If a material actually absorbed all wavelengths except yellow, they would appear either a dark olive green, or nearly black, depending on how wide the gap is in the yellow portion (560-590 nanometers) of the spectrum.

[@Mr.MashenIt]

This one is really fantastic, and I enjoyed it. I've been mulling over the weird properties of light lately. Specifically, how raising shells makes visible light and how it's the fastest speed anything can go. I like how you tied the chemistry into that all. This is the most under-rated chemistry channel on KZbin.

[@Nethershaw]

I am thirty-eight years old and autistic. You actually taught me something I didn't know today. Actually a lot of things. It usually takes a working researcher to do that. Thank you. Chemistry keeps being fruitful in this way. Maybe I should consider that as a hint in my quest for a career change. You just earned a sub from a first watch. Keep being awesome.

[@ACSReactions]

Thanks for sharing. We're really glad to hear this. And by all means, start considering!

[@CapitalisticEmu]

When you were talking about vibrations and colour, I was waiting for the crystals (said with a Zen calm) to make an appearance 😂. Didn't disappoint! Btw, the butterfly pea juice colour change when you add acid (lemon juice)would also be a great way to explain the impact of molecular structures on acid (+ people can try it out at home) and makes for a gr8 drink 🍷

[@Autistic_Artist]

An interesting thing about color is the difference between additive and subtractive mixing. If you add all your colors of pigments you get browns and black but if you add all the colors of light together you get white light. So if you are using uv active paints you are painting with light 😮 A few years ago I made a video about mixing fluorescent red green and blue pants will almost make white light. I say almost as it's actually both subtractive and additive creating an off white as it self illuminates its own ugliness.

[@robertlindgren9702]

Thank’s for an amazing video! Going deeper into light absorption and chemoluminessens. I really liked how you showed the electron probability distribution in the indigo molecule in the exited and non exited state :)! But when you talked about combustion and the blue spectrum in the bottom with more oxygen there making it hotter and therefore blue, I think it is a misconception. When carbon monoxide oxidizes to carbon dioxide it emits photons in the blue spectra… however it is not as much as the black body radiation that gets emitted in the flame above as sot is generated. therefore, you can not see the blue color although this reaction is happening throughout the flame. It’s like turning on your headlights of your car during the day time, no one will notice:). If you look up black body radiation and blue color limitations you will see why you can’t get the distinct blue color you get in the bottom of a candle for instance in combination with adiabatic temperature you’ll see why you can’t get that blue flame. Clean combustion means less sot and therefore less black body radiation leading to more of the CO to CO2 chemoluminessens showing through. Anyway, really great video :)n

[@Lbgood2121]

That's what she said.

[@seanoneil2353]

Minor detail: The trace ions causing blue color in sapphire aren't copper and magnesium, they're titanium and iron. Though sapphires can also come in many other colors from other trace ions.

[@MitchFlint]

Very interesting perspective on subtractive color. But what about additive mixing of colored light?

[@Antenox]

The audio transitions are *chef's kiss*

[@ikocheratcr]

Very nice explanation, love how you move from one form of color "generation" to the next one, so seamless.

[@RoyWiggins]

My favorite color fact is that gold would be silvery without relativistic effects altering its electron orbitals.

[@Zenodilodon]

The color iceberg is my favorite one to visit. Color production can also arise from refraction and diffraction commonly too. Things get wilder when considering nonlinear optics, synchrotron radiation, and free electron lasers. My whole mental model of light is out in the boonies at this point. It just gets stranger the more I learn. Excellent video and much more detailed than expected!

[@sethm7761]

You should look into mirrors too... what is even crazier is that the light isn't actually bouncing. The atoms are basically sending out new light.

[@RoySATX]

A remarkably informative video, it doesn't shy away from the actual science but never gets so technical that your eyes glaze over while drool drips from your lower lip. The host is well informed and engaging, and displays an honest level of excitement and interest in the topic. Well done. And thank for this info 7:32 During my edible-filled trip to Cancun in 1998 I spent hours one night vibrating at the same frequency as the Caribbean sea, knee deep in bright azure water much knowledge was shared between the Universe and myself through that aquatic medium, but no one believed me, said I was just hallucinating. I was that, heroic levels, that's the only way to vibrate at that frequency.

[@midbc1midbc199]

How people see color is also a chemical reaction

[@Rwdphotos]

The earring choice didn’t get past me. Thanks for the little details

[@mingoms]

Wow. I knew all this but still enjoyed your explanation immensely! Thank you!

[@bjmcculloch]

First time viewer here. I’m a chemist, so I thought I would just play this in the background and go about my business, but… holy cow! I had no idea why water was blue. I had to bring this to the foreground and comment to convey my appreciation for this fantastic video.

[@xxportalxx.]

Well gosh darn! Definitely the most thorough description I've ever seen, basically combining tons of other more specific descriptions.

[@YoutubeBorkedMyOldHandle_why]

Great video. Your discussion of constructive and destructive interference reminds me of an interesting thing which has been done with photographic lenses for many decades now. One of the reasons for this, is that by having an even coating of some material, which is exactly n+1/2 wavelengths of a given colour of light, the light reflected from the surface of the coating interferes destructively with the light reflected from the underlying glass below. Since energy must be conserved, adding this coating counter intuitively 'increases' the transmission of light through the lens. This is particularly important with modern lenses, which need to have many lens elements in order to correct for other issues. Also, modern lenses are 'multi' coated, since they have to also account for different frequencies of light.

[@terryrichards2546]

Are photons really reflected or being absorbed and reemitted?

[@BillAnt]

It's like a big bouncy-house (lol), some bounce, others reflect, add together or cancel out.

[@fullfungo]

No. It’s an oversimplification

[@Reginaldesq]

As far as I know (which isnt far). If a surface is perfectly white it will reflect all the light that hits it. If it was absorbed and reemitted I would expect to see some loss in either colour or intensity? Anyway something nobody seems to cover on the web is the difference between additive and subtractive colour. This video was mostly about subtractive colour. In simple terms Subtractive colour is the colour removed by eg. paint on a white piece of paper (so removing colour from white). Additive colour is adding colour to black (emptiness) so, looking directly at the sun (from space) or looking at your computer screen (not reflected).

[@terryrichards2546]

@@Reginaldesq Amazing answer. Thank you!

[@_abdul]

"This one is better." - Every other video on Color

[@mishkac927]

PBS Terra sent me this way and I can see why. This was great.

[@troys6965]

Now you have me imagining evolving organs to sense other wavelengths. For that, you get a new subscriber.

[@ACSReactions]

Okay but I think about this ALL THE TIME. What if we could see radio waves? Or microwaves?! Or maybe we could sense them in another way like sound? What would our world look/feel/new sense like?! How cool that we can see this sliver!! -Alex

[@bhangela]

This is such a cool video! Quite easy to follow and well organized. This helps me appreciate learning molecular orbital theory.... i used to despise it!

[@jeffreyyoung4104]

As an amateur, I find this to be very educational! I have always known there was an energy cause to color, but this video shows, and proves to me, the how and why, Thank you!! It puts to bed most of my questions I have wondered about over the decades! It also answers the question as to why some materials are transparent and others are not. It isn't because the object is denser, but that the energy we see is blocked and reflected by the electrons position in the orbits of the molecules, and those electrons can be caused to change orbits by chemical means, or by temperature, or even by changing the electrical charge of the material, which alters the position of the electrons in their orbits. I could sense the answer, but not understand it enough to vocalize it, but this video explains it to where I can understand it.

[@philouzlouis2042]

Hi Reactions, Your video is interesting and covers a large subject that can't be presented honestly in such a short video. I have to mention that about your affirmation of impurities responsible of the corundum colors (red rubbies and blue saphires - I did write the color and name because rubbies are simply red saphires and saphires not simply blue because geologically speaking they can be found in about all the field of rainbow colors even colorless as (as you presented) leuco-saphires what are plain aluminia). Most of the time saphires can be black because the impurities becomes too high in concentration and as a matter of facts nearly all colors turns into black if too concentrated. At home I have orange, yellow, pink, red, colorless and blue (synthetic and/or natural) ; I could make any color by fusing Al2O3 with tiny amounts of metalic oxides of my choice to make blue, yellow and red or any mix of those (I already made synthetic red rubbies from green Cr2O3 and colorless Al2O3 and a blow torch (butane/N2O burning as hot as 2800°C); an acetylen/oxygen one could burn up to 3100°C). To make yellow saphire one simply needs a little Fe2O3 (yes rust) To make blue colored saphire one would need FeO, TiO2 it would eventualy work with CoO (see blue tinted glass). Sadly MgO would make colorless MgAl2O4 (what is a comon mineral) into geology. My guess is that black CuO (or Cu(II) cupric oxide) will provide some green not blue (and red Cu2O (Cu(I) cuprous oxide) will provide something completely different). To give you an idea normal glass (SiO2 mainly with CaSiO4 and Na2SiO4) is brown-yellow thanks to traces of Fe2O3, green thanks to CuO amongts others, blue thanks to CoO. Mg silicate is colorless Regards, PHZ (PHILOU Zrealone from the Science Madness forum)

[@danwylie-sears1134]

Are you sure that the light from soot in a campfire flame works by energy-level transitions within individual carbon atoms as shown at 10:38? I thought that the soot emitted light as a very close approximation to blackbody radiation, which depends on temperature and not on the composition of the material. (As long as it's black. Or effectively black in the case of cavity radiation, which I think is how blackbody radiation was originally described, because a small hole in a large unlit container is effectively black regardless of the material.) And it really doesn't make sense to have less leftovers upstream and more downstream. (Which is the opposite of up and down, in a campfire flame, because the material in the flame is rising.) The blue part at the base of a flame is there because it takes time for the carbon to condense into soot that's large enough to emit blackbody radiation.

[@Jeremy-fl2xt]

If there were d & f orbital animations that weren't shown, I'd be interested in seeing them. This channel has really good content btw.

[@critiqueofthegothgf]

this is one of the best science communication videos ive ever watched. knowledge from chem 1 carried me a bit but your explanatory skills are seriously fantastic and even without background knowledge, id have been able to follow along

[@ACSReactions]

Thanks-we really appreciate it

[@Brice23]

Wonderful presentation, and very impressive that you watched every other video on the topic of color in order to ascertain the facts required to produce the only correct and complete video on the subject. Anyhow, this is the first of your videos I have seen and of course I must subscribe.

[@Rungus27]

a rapid-fire marathon of info but the best video about "light" on youtube for sure!

[@TheDharevCat]

this is such a good and well carried explanation of how molecules and different phenomenons get to have colors, it really helps me complement an Ochem lab session where we synthesized some azo dyes!

[@blzrdphoto]

I am so impressed with how good the audio quality is. I can clearly see in quite a few shots but I don’t hear any wind at all. It really allows me to focus on the words being said instead of the noise. Great job!

[@nerdnam]

As a wanna be artist, I'm fascinated by the fact that we don't have all possible colors in our pigments. For instance it would be nice to have a cyan pigment that could be used in our four color printing process. Since it doesn't exist, we have to mix two blue pigments to get a cyan color which is a little duller than what a pure pigment cyan would be.

[@denzelayala5162]

Coming from the chemistry/physics community here so I use, Lig-and rather Lye-gand BTW This video was fantastic! I have so many people to share it with. I love how the video catches so many of the nuanced ways colors are made. It’s my favorite thing when something that’s taken for granted like color is explored in all its beautiful glory. For anyone who is interested there is a Nature paper that shows ANOTHER ORIGIN of color not covered in the video. Acharya, S., Pashov, D., Weber, C. et al. A theory for colors of strongly correlated electronic systems. Nat Commun 14, 5565 (2023) The summery is that there are materials with large band gaps that should be clear, like the quartz in your ruby/sapphire example. However, even in the absence of impurities they have a color in the visible spectrum. The reason why is strong electron interactions. There are various forms they interact that are either related to charge or spin but still a fascinating read.

[@jaymayhoi]

awesome video! love the transitions, underrated channel for sure!

[@DANGJOS]

The explanation of color being when some light is absorbed and others reflected isn't wrong; it just isn't complete. Fortunately this video gives a lot more detail. I also appreciate that you showed the absorption spectra which I love because it gives you insight in what colors you should see, especially as it relates to different concentrations or path length.

[@georgejanzen774]

Can we acknowledge real quick how good the audio editing is? She's sitting in a field with a road in the background and all we hear is her voice. Is this a voice over?

[@spitfireresearchinc.7972]

Very well done. Colour is such a complex topic, and you've treated it elegantly and accurately. Congratulations! If you had spent yet another minute explaining phosphorescence (as distinct from fluorescense, that would have made it even better!

[@jasharin]

> apologizes for pronunciation of "ligand" > immediately goes on to pronounce "aluminium" wrong

[@Reginaldesq]

:) Its actually not incorrect pronunciation. The USA actually spells it differently. So Aluminium (the world), Aluminum (USA)

[@NickAc]

Just a heads up, the English subtitles are broken. Instead of being timed, it's all on the 0:00 mark. Keep up the good work though!

[@ACSReactions]

Whoops, thanks for the heads up. Should be fixed now.

[@jumpander]

Differentiating between color and wavelength is important here. Color is human qualia, while wavelength is purely physical. For example, I, as an (artificial) tetrachromat, will not agree to how most people describe colors, and I'm able to tell wavelength combinations better apart. But I still see the same wavelengths/light as everybody else. I don't think that "every other video about color is wrong", they're just looking at color from a different frame of reference and might not go as much into the physical and chemical details as you did. I also can't just say everybody else is wrong about color, just because they're looking at it with a different frame of reference. Nonetheless a great video! I've learned a few things I didn't know before.

[@ungültigerAlias]

Thank you so much for telling it like it should be told. All around are only parts of that and that only confuses me. I never heard the hole story in one video which is absolutely perfect to get the knowledge and understand it all. Tysm !

[@DANGJOS]

10:34 This part is somewhat misleading. Campfire flames are caused by incandescence, which is black body radiation and not really a single transition. And although it isn't mentioned, the blue color of bunsen burner flames are caused by excited C-H and C-C bonds to my understanding.

[@kevinroberts781]

Absolutely fantastic. First time watching you. Subscribed!

[@armyofthewolves]

I hate to be that guy, but all of the videos about color I remember mention electron absorbtion and re-emission 😅

[@Rudolf_Edward]

Very informative. But one question: is ADR applied on all different takes on different locations of presentations? It feels/sounds a bit unnatural..

[@brusicor02]

16:35 Rubis doesn't fluoresce; it's phosphorescence because electrons change spin during the transition ²Eg → ⁴A₂g.

[@galenargyros4082]

I was just having a conversation with a friend who is studying radio frequencies for their work, we then talked about how I used to hum along with music in the car and if I managed to get just the right frequency it would cause a warbling sound that was the result of constructive interference. Then this video appears and covers constructive and destructive interference in light.

[@173Eyes]

Small correction, the thing that makes Blueberries blue are actually a class of chemicals known as Anthocyanins, which actually change color with ph! The skin, which is neutral, is a bluish color, but when blended with the acidic flesh make it purple! If you add a base (like Milk of Magnesia) you'll turn it back to blue, and even a gross green color if you add too much Source: Adam Ragusea, the steak cutting board guy

[@_cmr211]

"So much math for just that" > One basic equation with multiplication and division Great vid tho ❤

[@eddiemorrone870]

I don't think that's the wax at 19:05; color changes when fluids dry because the dissolved solids are no longer suspended in a liquid and ordered differently. Another popular example is the color of blood. Blood is red on a white cloth but turns brown as it dries.

[@jjmartin6422]

20:36 apply the same angle-dependent color to radio wavelengths that we cannot see and you have modern stealth technology. the goal isn't to be unseen by radar waves, the goal is to scatter them so they never make it back to a radar receiver.

[@guidogaggl4020]

I like basically all of your videos. But boy this one is just sooo good. I study physics so I heard most of those concepts already but no one ever explained them in such an interesting way . Congrats and thanks for all the interesting facts and the really nice explanation 🥳

[@MePeterNicholls]

7:38 which is why oceans soak up infrared/heat?

[@corbynquick]

11:47 This is also how you can tell you have clean smoke when making BBQ. Clean blue smoke means near complete combustion, which avoids that acrid taste you get from dirty smoke choked into the cooking chamber. Very cool video!

[@carlstanland5333]

This one time, in band gap…

[@chcomes]

small correction- metals have not a small gap but superposition of bands

[@ya2a16]

14:24 where the place is ?where are you from? Your science demonstration videos are incredibly amazing 👏🏻👏🏻

[@jpr3579]

Such a well made video! Such an eye opener! And to think that a lot of this content was not even known about, back when the know-it-all scientists of old gave the ultimate explanations of everything in the Universe... Oh well, they were just trying their best with WHAT LITTLE they actually had an understanding of.

[@joshuascholar3220]

I haven't gotten deep into this video yet, but let me add another rabbit hole to light. Ok, light is generated when charge accelerates and the signal of the light depends on the precise motion of that charge - it's not any more a pure frequency than the motion of the charge was purely periodic. Now, you're used to thinking that light is made up of photons that have one frequency each, if you're math nerd you probably think that the signal went through a Fourier transform and produced pure frequency photons that add up to the signal of the moving charge. But that's not true either. Individual photons don't have pure frequencies. OMG.

[@pedrosso0]

I pronounce it ligand because it just makes sense (Awaits the chaos) Lie-gand, not liggand

[@tonypalmeri722]

EXCELLENT! While I already knew bits and pieces of what you covered, you put everything together in a compelling and easy to follow way. You've just earned a new subscriber. [I thought this video was going to be more about our human *perception* of color.... maybe you'll also cover that in more detail in another video.... but BRAVO on this video!]

[@ericcarabetta1161]

So what does mie and Rayleigh scattering mean for color?

[@jamisondonald384]

This is ridiculously high quality. It's excellent on every level.

[@BartT75]

whoa, 20+ mins of Alex explaining something fascinating? 🍿🫀🍿

[@abelstavrow]

Good job on this video ACS😎👍

[@BxxDub]

great video as usual, keep up the great work! chemistry is so fun and exciting to learn about, hopefully more people will grow to appreciate its beauty. also its li-gand. But I am a chemist so if what you said is true, then it checks out 😆

[@Hyo9000]

I’m pretty sure that your explanation for the blue color of hydrocarbon flames is incomplete. The yellow, and indeed, oranges, reds, etc, come from black body radiation that the soot particles emit. That color is dependent on their temperature, but the colors emitted are actually a distribution. The hotter, the closer to white light this distribution goes. Until about 3k C or so, when it starts becoming bluer as less and less red is present in the curve. This brings us to the blue in hydrocarbon flames. It does not come from black body radiation. It is way too clean, has no UV and it is too tenuous to be anything like BB radiation. Plus, only soot can give off enough light from BB radiation for us to see it properly - clean, sootless flames have only gas products, which don’t have enough density or emissivity to provide visible BB radiation. I believe the blue in blue flames must come from the reaction itself. Perhaps it is the light that water emits as it is formed, or perhaps it is the light that CO2 emits as it is formed. Either way, it isn’t BB. Thanks! ❤

[@hantrio4327]

The blue colour comes from electron excitations of CO2 and CH radicals and C2 molecules

[@MePeterNicholls]

Which is why colours fade in sunlight?

[@RPWhitworth]

Could you harvest blueberry pigment by aiming a heat source at blueberries, melting the wax off? Would they then produce additional wax for harvest?

[@Erosis]

Okay, so I understand that the indigo dye absorbs certain wavelengths of light and reflects other wavelengths light. However, it doesn't seem to emit light itself like quinine. So what happens when LUMO relaxes back to HOMO. Does it release that energy without releasing a photon? Edit: It must be through vibrations similar with water?

[@GlennLewis]

Wow, absolutely incredible. Beautifully well-done explanation. Thank you for sharing!

[@tannerroman7396]

This is the most incredible video I've ever seen. A huge step closer in my journey to understand the nature of reality. Thank you for your effort here.

[@NathanaelNewton]

So why are solvated electrons blue?

[@aloysiusdevadanderabercrombie8]

18:24 "I like when chemistry works" as a chemist, I do too lol

[@ascarylobster]

It’s all just wiggles!

[@goodisanoun]

Is it me or is the audio not synced right?

[@Erosis]

I thought the blue in the water was from Rayleigh scattering. I guess that is for the sky only.

[@michaeldamolsen]

Pure water doesn't Rayleigh scatter very much, if I remember correctly it is 1-2 percent per 5-10 meters. But if you add a small splash of milk, the fatty molecules will Mie scatter the light. Although it is technically the wrong scattering, it is great for desktop demonstrations of how atmospheric scattering causes blue skies and red sunsets.