Chlorophyll, more like bore-aphyll.
For anyone who wants to know the real answer. Unfiltered sunlight is white in appearance covering the full visual light spectrum. Once this light hits the atmosphere higher frequencies such as violet and blue are scattered as the lower frequencies pass through making the sun appear yellow. Most of the light still makes it through the first pass however so most of the full spectrum still passes through is reflected again by the earths surface. Once this bounced light hits the atmosphere again on the underside the higher frequencies are again scattered letting lower frequencies pass making the sky appear blue. Of the light that hits the plants leaves green light is reflected while everything else is absorbed making the leaf appear green.
I don’t think it’s pure white. Given the type of our star I remember reading it’s actually yellow with a hint of green.
It peaks in yellow/green, but its not a ton more yellow than the rest of the visible spectrum so its still very white, the yellow appearance from earth’s surface is still more due to atmospheric filtering than the actual spectrum its emitting.
but WHY do plants reflect green light instead of any other color? you skipped the most important part!
Because the way chlorophyll is shaped at a molecular level, it acts like a filter. It lets red and blue light pass, but reflects green light.
You might be thinking, well wouldn’t it it better to absorb green too? Why didn’t chlorophyll evolve to absorb all colors, making plants black? The answer is because evolution don’t give a damn about the best way to do things, only the good enough way. Chlorophyll developed by random chance, and blue-green algea (with chlorophyll) beat red algae (with phycoerythrin) to evolving into complex plant structures.
Some plants do have black leaves
And red leaves
Yeah, but not due to photosynthesizing pigments, afaik. Only other pigmentation in the leaf. Though it may still be an adaptive benefit.
Most of these are probably under growth. Much of the light gets filtered by the time it gets to them and they evolved to maximize the remainder.
Warmer leaf may increase photosynthesis rate
Sunlight is actually mostly green/blue, more green at the surface. It just appears white because that’s what we’re used to and the difference in intensity isn’t that much for visible light anyways.
See https://seos-project.eu/earthspectra/images/Solar-spectrum.png
Rest checks out as far as I remember! Though the wording about the scattering is a bit loose. More specific details at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffuse_sky_radiation
No, it’s because money is green and money is the root of all evil so since plants have roots, plants are also green. Except for all the myriad different species and cultivars that aren’t green at all, they ain’t got no money. They ain’t got no car to take you on a date. Tthey can’t even buy you flowers.
But money doesn’t grow on trees
But great number of money is paper. So…
So… paper… is like, uhh, the root? The root of the evil?
Trunk of all evil maybe? Branch of all evil?
Money isn’t green everywhere in the world. Where I live, 100 euro bills are green, but all other bills are completely different colors.
100 AUD is green too
That’s interesting. I wonder how it may be related to the water system. Eg waterfalls.
Oh sure, complain about it, but don’t explain what’s wrong. Sounds like science to me. Blue, yellow, green, plants, it all makes sense. If you can’t explain it so a five-year-old can understand it, then you don’t really understand it.
/s
They’re also not including brown, from the soil they get their nutrients from! :(
Brown is how you get red leaf plants. Brown is just red and green mixed after all, so you take out the green for other stuff the plant needs and are left with red.
It’s all totally on the up and up.
That’s why a lot of fruits are red - that’s where the plant puts its red from its brown (dirt) so it can stay green! Science is fucking magical.
It’s not almost right.
Actually, they just hate green so they refuse to absorb it, they’re saying “hey green light, get the fuck out of here!”
Thats how all colours work though.
Edit: and as I post that, and edit this, I’m realizing more and more that isn’t remotely true.
It’s how many colours work.
Black loves all and absorbs all. White rejects all light.
This is to science what homeopathy is to medicine.
I don’t understand how anyone could think that the sun is yellow, without questioning why they’re able to see other colors in daylight besides yellow. It’s like they don’t even have the most basic understanding of how light and color work. It is impossible for the sun to be any color other than white, otherwise other colors wouldn’t exist.
It does look yellowish though
It do look quite yellow though.
It’s because it’s going through atmosphere. Your seeing it with a bunch of blue wavelengths scattered by the atmosphere (take note of the blue sky).
Making the sun, when viewed directly, have a yellowish tint.
It’s still white.
If it’s yellowish, then it’s yellowish, not white - if we’re talking what can be spectrographically measured. If we’re talking about perception then it gets rather interesting with the way our eyes/brain compensate for light sources - see white balance on cameras, or that green/gold/blue/white dress controversy.
Sorry chief, most people dont have any understanding of how light and color work.
Or anything else for that matter
looks yellow to me get your eyes checked
No it’s Becky.
[This conversation isn’t worth it; leave my inbox alone now, please]
yah, duh. Still looks yeller.
The fact that you’re down voted really speaks to the level of scientific illiteracy here
I think because it’s a joke and you both got whoooshed
Nope, it’s because of the “common sense” as in “everyone who doesn’t know what I know is stupid”.
From talking to other people, I believe my knowledge of colors and light is considerably higher than normal, but I would never think someone lacks “common sense” (which reads to me that they are stupid) for not knowing these things.
In fact when I show people how some colors are not visibly reflected on different wavelengths, and they seem interested, it makes me happy. I don’t expect them to know that, but the fact that they are curious and interested shows they are willing to learn, and that is nice.
But comments like these makes people not want to learn.
