Colour: Why the World Isn't Grey

Why do pebbles look brighter when wet? Is there a "right" order in which to arrange a set of colored crayons? Are blue rooms really "cold"? Why do some clothes change color when ironed? What are the colors you see when you press your eyes? To answer these and other questions, Hazel Rossotti uses scientific basics--matter, energy, and eye structure--to discuss the colors of the natural world, the mechanism of color vision, and a range of color technology from ceramics to television. She includes a fascinating discussion of the uses of color, both "prosaic" (as for camouflage, signaling, and symbolism) and "poetic" (for conveying mood in art and language). Dealing with subjects from refraction to rainbows, chlorophyll to color blindness, this book will appeal both to the general reader and to the scientist.

"Intelligent and well-written, this book deals with color in virtually all its aspects, from physics and chemistry of light to dyes to the color of animals and vegetables to perception of color and the relation of color to moods."--Lawrence E. Marks, Yale University

"Rossotti has managed successfully to bring together a wide range of facts having to do with color. Indeed, I can think of few aspects of the subject not touched on in this book. The large number of appeals to common experience and natural settings should greatly aid the layman's understanding of what are some rather tricky issues."--Gerald H. Jacobs, University of California, Santa Barbara