Yellow
history
Yellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M (long and medium wavelength) cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S (short-wavelength) cone cells.
Etymology and definitions
The word yellow comes from the Old English geolu, or geolwe which derived from the Proto-Germanic word gelwaz.[»Online Etymology Dictionary] The oldest known use of this word in English is in the Old English poem Beowulf, in a description of a shield made of wood from a yew tree.[Oxford English Dictionary]
In the English language, yellow has traditionally been associated with jaundice and cowardice.
"Yellow" ("giallo"), in Italy, refers to crime stories, both fictional and real. This association began in about 1930, when the first series of crime novels published in Italy had yellow covers. The term "yellow movie" (黃色電影) can refer to films of pornographic nature in Chinese culture, and is analogous to the English "blue movie".[
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In science
Colorimetry
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Hunt defines that "two colors are complementary when it is possible to reproduce the tristimulus values of a specified achromatic stimulus by an additive mixture of these two stimuli."
Astronomy
Stars of spectral classes F and G, such as our sun Sol, have color temperatures that make them look "yellowish".[
] The first astronomer to classify stars according to their color was F. G. W. Struve in 1827. One of his classifications was flavae, or yellow, and this roughly corresponded to stars in the modern spectral range F5 to K0.
Biology
Pigments
- Carotenoids are organic pigments which give many biological objects, including egg yolks, autumn leaves and yellow flowers, their color.
- Yellow pan traps are used to capture insects, many of which are attracted to shades of yellow.
[Kisimoto,Ryoiti (1968) Yellow Pan Water Trap for Sampling the Small Brown Planthopper, Laodelphax striatellus (FALLEN), a Vector of the Rice Stripe Virus. Japanese Society of Applied Entomology and Zoology 3(1):37-48][Webb, S. E., M. L. Kok-Yokomi, and D. J. Voegtlin (1994) Effect of Trap Color on Species Composition of Alate Aphids (Homoptera: Aphididae) Caught over Watermelon Plants Florida Entomologist 77(1):146-153 »PDF]
Birds
- Yellow-breasted Chats (Icteria virens) are large foraging songbird found in southern parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Central America. They are olive with a white bellie and a yellow throat and breast, with a long tail, a thick heavy bill, a large white eye ring, and dark legs.
- The Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) is a passerine in the bunting family Emberizidae. It breeds across Europe and much of Asia. Most yellowhammers are resident, but some far northern birds migrate south in winter. It is common in all sorts of open areas with some scrub or trees. They are large with a thick seed-eater's bill. The males have a bright yellow head, yellow underparts, and a heavily streaked brown back. Females are much duller and more streaked below.
- The Yellow-shafted Flicker (Colaptes auratus) is a large woodpecker species of eastern North America. They have yellow shafts on their wing and tail feathers.
Fish
- Yellowtail is the common name for dozens of different fish species that have yellow tails or a yellow body.
- Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) is a species of tuna, having bright yellow anal and second dorsal fins. Found in tropical and subtropical seas and weighing up to , it is caught as a replacement for the depleted stocks of bluefin tuna.
Insects
- A yellow-fever mosquito is a mosquito in the Aedes genus, so named because they transmit dengue fever and yellow fever, the mosquito-born viruses.
- Yellowjackets are black-and-yellow wasps of the genus Vespula or Dolichovespula (though some can be black-and-white, the most notable of these being the bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata). They can be identified by their distinctive black-and-yellow color, small size (slightly larger than a bee), and entirely black antennae.
Trees
Other plants
Electric yellow vs. process yellow
The color box at right shows the most intense yellow representable in 8-bit RGB color model; yellow is a secondary color in an additive RGB space.
The measured light spectrum from yellow pixels on a typical computer display is complex, and very unlike the reflectance spectrum of a yellow object such as a banana.
Process yellow (also known as pigment yellow, printer's yellow or canary yellow) is one of the three colors typically used as subtractive primary colors, along with magenta and cyan. The CMYK system for color printing is based on using four inks, one of which is a yellow color. This is in itself a standard color, and a fairly narrow range of yellow inks or pigments are used. Process yellow is based on a colorant that reflects the preponderance of red and green light, and absorbs most blue light, as in the reflectance spectra shown in the figure on the lower right.
Because of the characteristics of paint pigments and use of different color wheels, painters traditionally regard the complement of yellow as the color indigo or blue-violet.
Process yellow is not an RGB color, and there is no fixed conversion from CMYK primaries to RGB. Different formulations are used for printer's ink, so there can be variations in the printed color that is pure yellow ink.
The first recorded use of canary yellow as a color name in English was in 1789.[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 191; Color Sample of Canary Yellow: Page 45 Plate 11 Color Sample L3]
Lasers
Lasers emitting in the yellow part of the spectrum are much less common than most other colors.[ - described as "Very rare yellow laser colour".] They are also much more expensive than comparable lasers because the difference in energy levels between the metastable and the ground state required for laser action is difficult to create for yellow photons. In commercial products diode pumped solid state (DPSS) technology is employed to create the yellow light. An infrared laser diode at 808 nm is used to pump a crystal of neodymium-doped yttrium vanadium oxide (Nd:YVO4) or neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Nd:YAG) and induces it to emit at two frequencies (wavelengths of 1064 nm and 1342 nm) simultaneously. This deeper infrared light is then passed through another crystal containing potassium, titanium and phosphorus (KTP), whose non-linear properties generate light at a frequency that is the sum of the two incident beams; in this case corresponding to the wavelength of 593.5 nm ("yellow").
Minerals and chemistry
- Yellowcake (also known as urania and uranic oxide) is concentrated uranium oxide, obtained through the milling of uranium ore. Yellowcake is used in the preparation of fuel for nuclear reactors and in uranium enrichment, one of the essential steps for creating nuclear weapons.
- Titan yellow (also known as clayton yellow),
- Methyl yellow (p-Dimethylaminoazobenzene) is a pH indicator used to determine acidity. It changes from yellow at pH=4.0 to red at pH=2.9.
- Yellow fireworks are produced by adding sodium compounds to the firework mixture. Sodium has a strong emission at 589.3 nm (D-line), a very slightly orange-tinted yellow.
- Amongst the elements, sulfur and gold are most obviously yellow. Phosphorus, arsenic and antimony have allotropes which are yellow or whitish-yellow; Fluorine and chlorine are pale yellowish gases.
Pigments
- Yellow ochre (also known as Mars yellow, Pigment yellow 42, 43),
- Indian yellow is a transparent, fluorescent pigment used in oil paintings and watercolors. Originally magnesium euxanthate, it was claimed to have been produced from the urine of Indian cows fed only on mango leaves.
- Naples Yellow (lead antimonate yellow) is one of the oldest synthetic pigments, derived from the mineral bindheimite and used extensively up to the 20th century.
- Cadmium Yellow (cadmium sulfide, CdS) has been used in artists' paints since the mid-19th century.
- Chrome Yellow (lead chromate, ), derived from the mineral crocoite, was used by artists in the earlier part of the 19th century, but has been largely replaced by other yellow pigments because of the toxicity of lead.
- Titanium Yellow (nickel antimony titanium yellow rutile, ) is created by adding small amounts of the oxides of nickel and antimony to titanium dioxide and heating. It is used to produce yellow paints with good white coverage and has the LBNL paint code "Y10".
- Gamboge is an orange-brown resin, derived from trees of the genus Garcinia, which becomes yellow when powdered.
- Orpiment, also called King's Yellow or Chinese Yellow is arsenic trisulfide () and was used as a paint pigment until the 19th century when, because of its high toxicity and reaction with lead-based pigments, it was generally replaced by Cadmium Yellow.
In human culture
Cultural associations
- The ancient Maya associated the color yellow with the direction South.
- The word can be used as an adjective meaning .
Cancer
- Cyclist Lance Armstrong's "Livestrong" campaign has also been associated with the color yellow.
History
- The legendary first emperor of China was known as the Yellow Emperor or Huang Di (Chinese: 黃å¸, Simplified Chinese: 黄å¸). Members of the imperial family of China at that time were the only ones allowed to display the color yellow in buildings and garments.
- The Yellow Turbans were a Daoist sect that staged an extensive rebellion during the Han Dynasty.
Journalism
- "Yellow journalism" is a term that refers to sensationalist journalism that distorts, exaggerates, or exploits news to maximize profit. The term came from Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal American, who engaged in sensational reporting during the late 19th and early 20th century, most famously during the Spanish-American War. The term was derived from the color comic strip The Yellow Kid, which appeared in both papers.
Music
- The Beatles 1966 album Revolver features the #1 hit, "Yellow Submarine". Subsequently United Artists released an animated film in 1968 called "Yellow Submarine", based on the music of the Beatles.
- The March 1967 album by Donovan called Mellow Yellow was very popular among the hippies. The featured song on the album, "Mellow Yellow", popularized during the Spring of 1967 a widely believed hoax that it was possible to get high by smoking scrapings from the inside of banana peels, although this rumor was actually started in 1966 by a different musician popular among the hippies, Country Joe McDonald.
- Coldplay achieved worldwide fame with their 2000 single "Yellow". It is a song that associates things the singer sees with the color yellow.
Politics
- Yellow was also the color of the New Party in the Republic of China (Taiwan), which supports Chinese reunification.
- In the United States, a yellow dog Democrat was a Southern voter who consistently voted for Democratic candidates in the late 19th and early 20th centuries because of lingering resentment against the Republicans dating back to the Civil War and Reconstruction period. Today the term refers to a hard-core Democrat, supposedly referring to a person who would vote for a "yellow dog" before voting for a Republican.
- Yellow is also associated in the United States with the Libertarian Party, to contrast with the Democratic Party (blue) and Republican Party (red).
- In the United Kingdom, The Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) has made use of yellow, along with black, as its primary party colors.
- During the People Power Revolution of 1986, yellow was the dominant theme, the color being associated with former Philippine President Corazon Aquino. It is now a symbol of both support for her as well as in commemoration of the popular revolt.
- In Europe, many liberal parties use yellow in a combination with blue, such as FDP (Germany), LIF (Austria), Reform Party of Estonia and Liberal and Centre Union (Lithuania).
Sports
in New York's Yankee Stadium with the right field foul pole in the distance.]]
- In Association football (soccer), the referee shows a yellow card to indicate that a player has been officially cautioned because they have committed a foul or have wasted time.
- In American Football, a yellow flag is thrown onto the field by a referee to indicate a penalty.
- Originally in Rugby League and then later, also in Rugby Union, the referee shows a yellow card to indicate that a player has been sent to the sin bin.
- In auto racing, a yellow flag signals caution. Cars are not allowed to pass one another under a yellow flag.
- In cycle racing, the yellow jersey - or maillot jaune - is awarded to the leader in a stage race. The tradition was begun in the Tour de France where the sponsoring L'Auto newspaper (later L'Équipe) was printed on distinctive yellow newsprint.
T.Mk1 during a display at Kemble Air Day, England, in 2008. This aircraft is painted in the yellow color of a former RAF display team - the Yellowjacks.]]
Transportation
- In some countries, taxicabs are commonly yellow. This practice began in Chicago, where taxi entrepreneur John D. Hertz painted his taxis yellow based on a University of Chicago study alleging that yellow is the color most easily seen at a distance.
- In Canada and the United States, school buses are almost uniformly painted a yellow color (often referred to as "school bus yellow") for purposes of visibility and safety,
- "Caterpillar yellow" and "high-visibility yellow" are used for highway construction equipment.
- In the rules of the road, yellow (called "amber" in Britain) is a traffic light signal warning that the period in which passage is permitted is coming to an end.
- Yellow warning signs, especially with black wording, borders, or alternating stripes, are used in many countries around the world to indicate caution, both as road signs and for other uses such as "caution, slippery floor".
- Several light rail and rapid transit lines on various public transportation have a Yellow Line.
Vexillology
- In International maritime signal flags a yellow flag denotes the letter "Q".
See also
References