Inspired by UnaBubba's "Paint everything green" idea, I propose that the sky be made green also; however, not using paint. Rather, by changing the properties of the atmosphere.
As far as I understand (link), the sky is blue because the different colours in white light are scattered differently by oxygen and nitrogen. So presumably adding some other gases in significant proportions will change the scattering properties, and so the colour will be changed. I'm thinking green.-- lubbit, Mar 30 2002 Why is the sky blue? http://www.why-is-t...s-the-sky-blue.html [lubbit, Mar 30 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004] Green blue color blind https://www.google....eid=chrome&ie=UTF-8Tritanopia [Skewed, Sep 28 2021] Blue–green distinction in language https://en.wikipedi...inction_in_language [xaviergisz, Sep 28 2021] Fork Handles https://www.youtube...watch?v=pV1IP4N9ajg [Skewed, Sep 28 2021, last modified Sep 29 2021] oh help, everything has gone green. I can't see where I am going. whoops, oh no even the dog is green. was that the budgy I just stepped on? not only that, I have just been sick. don't ask about the colour. I said don't ask!-- po, Mar 30 2002 Move to Gary, Indiana. At certain smoggy times the sky there is nice and green.-- RayfordSteele, Mar 30 2002 Add enough yellow sulfur to the air, and you'll get a nice green hue. 'Course you probably won't be able to breathe... but you can't have it all, can you?-- RayfordSteele, Mar 30 2002 I have seen green skies and usually it's a sign that you should be indoors. I've heard that, in certain midwestern states, it's a sign that you should be indoors and probably in a cellar.-- bristolz, Mar 30 2002 Yes, [bristolz], that seems to be true. There was once a tornado that went through this area when my father was just a small child. Extremely rare occurence for Michigan - but the whole afternoon everyone was talking about how strangely green the sky was.-- Pseudonym #3, Mar 30 2002 There is a slight problem though. Since sunlight is (from an energy per color point of view) is green, our eyes are less sensitive to it.
Blue is an easier colour.-- yatt, May 30 2002 Confusing to pilots. Years of tuition and study go into learning that blue is up, green is down.-- drew, May 30 2002 But think of all the bad poetry we'd have to change.
(Fishy for you. Maybe if you had said brown instead of green...)-- rapid transit, May 16 2003 Another popular choice for green gases is Chlorine... Not a very healthy option either.-- Saruman, Oct 21 2003 wouldnt that be nice, all green. i love the color green, like in plants. all the pretty green trees and grass.
it would kill all the plants, turning the sky green. you know plants look green because they reflect the green light from the sun and use the rest for photosynthasis. with only green light they'd have no light to use and die of starvation. But we wouldnt need them to green things up if the sky where green.
so go ahead and sulfer/chlorine the air to make things green, because you'd die from the CO2 before anything else.-- HalfwayHebrew, Oct 22 2003 No! If the sky were green, how would I know where to quit mowing?-- TheJeff, May 18 2004 One word: Oobleck.(see Dr. Seuss)-- Freefall, May 18 2004 there is no such problem in Chinese/Korean. They use the same character for both "green" and "blue".-- expat, Jun 04 2004 //no such problem in Chinese/Korean. They use the same character for both "green" and "blue"//
Really? makes you wonder if there was some kind of colour blindness involved in those who developed their languages.
Ok, so maybe it doesn't make you wonder but it does me.-- Skewed, Sep 27 2021 Huh possibly it seems <link> "Green blue color blindness Tritanomaly occurs when the S-cones (short wavelength cones) of the eye are present but dysfunctional. If you have tritanomaly, blue and green will look alike, and red and yellow will look alike. Tritanopia occurs when the S-cones of the eye are missing, which causes colors to look dampened"
So is there perhaps a higher incidence of that in China & Korea?-- Skewed, Sep 28 2021 Interesting.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 28 2021 //Interesting//
Did you see [xaviergisz] link?
Perhaps just the way language develops, words only get added as particular need for one arises perhaps.
[Imagines humorous difficulties in art supply shops getting a paint colour]
<link> Fork Handles.-- Skewed, Sep 28 2021 //colour blindness involved in those who developed their languages//
There seems to be a general phenomenon whereby older languages have fewer colour words - or, at least, fewer words for what we think of as different colours.
The Welsh word "glas" is ambiguous between blue and green, and there's a word in Homeric Greek (I now forget what it is) which is ambiguous between red and yellow.
This makes sense if it is connected with tritanopia, but might also just be down to what [skewed] said.-- pertinax, Sep 28 2021 // There seems to be a general phenomenon whereby older languages have fewer colour words //
Yes [xaviergisz] already linked an article on that //what [skewed] said// was in reference to it :)-- Skewed, Sep 28 2021 I find it really weird that some languages don't have the "blue/green" distinction. To me, at least (& I'm not a tetrachromat or anything special), the sky and tree leaves are blatantly different colours, so how do they end up with the same word?-- neutrinos_shadow, Sep 28 2021 Me too, or fascinating at least, often the same thing that I suppose.
Want to bet a correlation can be found with the discovery or prevalence of cloth dyes & the appearance of new words in a language to name their colour?-- Skewed, Sep 28 2021 //Did you see [xaviergisz] link?//
I have now.Okay sort of off topic but only tangentially, all legends have some kernel of truth at their core. Almost all religions refer to a great flood and the offer of a rainbow to solidify the deal that it wouldn't happen again.
What if humans were merely colour-blind at one time and a rainbow was just unable to be seen?
We just didn't have the eyes to see, the ears to hear... then.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 29 2021 Breathing is overrated.-- mailtosalonga, Sep 29 2021 //refer to a great flood// My theory (citation needed...) is that, quite simply, water is important for life. Therefore, all villages, towns, etc are built near water (river, lake, ocean); & so floods are a Thing that happens. Big flood = big problem, & becomes part of the "shared history" that everyone can relate to.-- neutrinos_shadow, Sep 29 2021 random, halfbakery