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Comment by hettygreen | Hacker News Reader

Am I missing something? The ambiguous ones are neither blue nor green, they're just cyan.

I think the whole point is that the blue/green distinction is very subjective and may be culturally influenced for certain populations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue%E2%80%93green_distinction...

The example we see every day in traffic lights. In most parts of the world we’d unambiguously call it a “green” light, despite the fact they’re almost always cyan, with the blue component (apparently) helping drivers with red/green color-blindness.

https://engineering.stackexchange.com/questions/53255/what-c...

That's the fun part, where do you draw the line in comparison to other people?

Yes, that's the point of the test, to see how you perceive the ambiguous ones. That is, at the end it shows the chart with the left 50% is green and right 50% is blue. The turquoise in the middle is what is hard to tell if green (aka on the left 50% or blue aka on the right 50%). For many the result line isn't down the middle but more to the left or right, and thus shows if you see turquoise (the ambiguous colors) more as blue or green. The text at the bottom of the test should put the answer in words/numbers.

It sounds like he or she perceived the color in question as cyan, which isn't an option.

Since cyan means 50% green and 50% blue, other than exactly in the middle of the chart, all the colors shown are either to the left of cyan(the middle), or to the right. So all the colors are either slightly to a lot blue or slightly to a lot green. This test is testing where everyone middle essentially is. If there were as cyan/turqouise option, that would be a very different test, I imagine essentially testing to lines, where the line between blue and cyan/ambiguity begins and the line between green and cyan/ambiguity begins requiring I imagine several more questions to get that answer and would only then be showing two lines on the graph, vs this test which is able to say if you lean more to the right or left of the middle of blue to green.

If you had to say that cyan was more blue or green, which would you pick?

Sorry do you mean in general, if I went to a paint store and they showed me a cyan patch? It would depend on that particular shade of cyan if it was more green or blue, and then on top of that my eyes bias towards green/blue. Or are you asking for the results of my own test here which show my particular bias of turquoise (as the author refers to or cyan as you refer to)? Took the test a couple types and varies but for me say I see turquoise as green (though close to 50%, so if took a few more times imagine may land blue sometimes and/or depend on if I'm viewing in a dark room or light room.

I'd pick... u wot m8.

Sorry not sure I understand. Yes, with each color that appears the I (or any user) has to pick which color they see more of, blue or green. Since every color shown unless presumably exactly 50% between green and blue, will either be more blue or more green. So you/I/users have to pick if they see more green or blue. The person next to you might see a hint of blue and you may see a hint of green for the same color since our eyes all work differently. UPDATE-Oh you may have been asking that of the person I was replying to initially.

If I had to say zero is more positive or negative, I'd probably say positive. But in reality it's neither.

Cyan is literally an even mix of blue and green.

So if there is only one cyan then then it should be easy to label something as green or blue.

Where do you put yellow on the purple-red scale? There is only one yellow after all, it should be easy to label something as purple or red

Since purple-red contains no green, yellow is orthogonal to your scale.

Cyan is just another shade of blue to me. The colour you get when you google image search "cyan" is definitely more blue than green to my eyes.

That's partially a cultural effect of many peers calling cyan blue.

Same as chartreuse and turquoise just getting called a weird shade of green, names affect perception.

Worse, if you call cyan blue, turquoise may become a weird shade of blue too, even though it's not even close.

Open up any digital drawing program. Adjust the color. Max out green and blue. That's cyan. Equal parts both.

Open up that same drawing program on a display with a different color balance. Max out green and blue. What color is that?

RGB values are an arbitrary color coordinate system which does not match up 1:1 with human language.

Human language is precise. Equal parts green and blue is the technical definition of cyan. Why are you imposing an erroneously calibrated device upon the whole of human language? Cyan doesn't stop being cyan just because your monitor is broken.

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