What's the wavelength of pure green?

[Atomicrox]

After the poll about blue, it's time for green!

I'm not asking which one you like the most. I'm asking which one you think is the purest shade of green - which one isn't skewed towards cyan or yellow.

Of course very few people have seen all of these, feel free to interpolate or guess based on the ones you have actually seen.

 

[SKeeZ]

gotta say 510nm... thats what the RGB hex calculator told me

 

[Atomicrox]

Please don't use the calculator for this. The purpose of the polls is exactly to get more realistic (but subjective) values.

 

[ZRaffleticket]

This is pretty much the voting for ArIon owners and who disagree with my theory behind seeing different shades of the same colors

 

[crazyspaz]

well...532 is too yellowish, and 520 is kinda minty green, so I'm saying somewhere in between those two

 

[Atomicrox]

What's your theory, ZRaffleticket?

@crazyspaz: agreed, I'm quite convinced of that as well!

 

[hwang21]

Also agreeing with crazyspaz here :beer:

 

[zyxwv99]

It depends on the brightness, due to the Bezold-Brücke shift.

handprint : adaptation, anchoring & contrast

In the US green traffic lights are about 505-507nm. (The old 3Ms were 507, the new Dialights are 505.) They were designed to look a little blue for the benefit of the color-blind.

My 532nm laser looks perfectly green in some lighting environment, a bit blue in some, trending towards yellow in others.

 

[LaWS]

510nm Green.
Everything else is a mix between Green and Blue or Green and Red.
When above 510nm then the Green is mixed with Red.
When below 510nm then the Green is mixed with Blue.

But still my favorite is Green 532nm (little bit yellowish)

 

[Blaster]

Well good to.know i voted 525nm and so far most ppl have that as there perception of true green, but the intensity of the beam or power also makes a difference. If you have a high power laser at virtually any frequency with maybe the exception of a red laser which to me still looks red even at high power but ive never really seen a real high power red ,the dot looks so bright it may as well be white it must be the beam that is the main thing to consider on your perception of the color ....well i guess red will be next lol.

 

[mojo_1234]

During my time on university I once had the chance to directly compare two argons one lasing on the common 514nm and the other one on the more rare 528nm line. For me the 514nm is a little bit to blueish and the 528 already has the color of "grass". So, the truth is somewhere in between: My vote 525nm.

 

[nueces]

Exposing my complete ignorance of color theory here: Red green and blue are the primary colors right? I guess the source ultimately at least for our planet is the sun. Is RG and B the same for other stars? Are the primary colors constant throughout the known visible universe? What device or system can represent or display perfect example of R G and B. Or is there always some variation?

 

[Atomicrox]

@zyxwv99:
great link! I'd rep you if I could.

@nueces:
RGB being primary colors has more to do with the way our eyes see than with the light of the sun - our eyes have 3 types of cones (cells that detect colored light), which roughly correspond to R, G and B.
No device can reproduce all colors perfectly, because monochromatic lights are unique in that they can never be reproduced by combining other wavelengths - you can make "a cyan" by combining green and blue, but it will never be the same color as a 488nm laser.

Results so far:
votes: 18
average: 524.7nm
standard deviation: 9.6nm

 

[ultimatekaiser]

well the rods and cones of the eye peak at 500 and 550 respectively, so it in theory our peak vision is about 530... personally i'd have to go with around 526nm.

This is going to be very subjective though because everyone sees color differently to some degree, and other lighting nearby can interfere with how one interprets a color.

 

[Teslanium]

I chose 520nm.

Ar-ion 514.5nm looks just a tad on the "bluer" side to me, while 532nm is very definitely a tad on the yellow, lime/grass green to my eyes.

2c,
T.

 

[DrMario]

525nm green. I have both Radio Shack 532nm laser pointer and DIY 520nm green handheld laser - I would say 525nm because 520nm is Emerald green as far as my eyes tell me (and no, I will admit my eye balls aren't accurate either - Blu-ray Disc 405nm laser diode looks indigo blue to me, discovered when I had to fix the BD player).