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Re: Pure white





I also suspect that the "explanation" of the Sun's alleged
yellow color is a nascent misconception. The only place one
will see a yellow sun is in a child's drawing. That is the
crayon of choice, I think by convention. Please, don't look
at the Sun to check. That can only be harmful, as Galileo
and Pascal learned. If the Sun looks yellow where you live my
advice to you is to leave the area.

If I remember correctly from my astronomy days, the Luminance curve for our
sun peaks in the yellow portion of the spectrum. That doesn't mean it
necessaarily looks yellow (a psychological phenomenon). However, if you
look at the spectrum for the sky, it is distinctly bluish (check out the
shadows in photographs of snow scenes). The sun is decidedly more yellow
than this. If I stared at something as bright as the sun, it probably
wouldn't matter a whole lot what color it is!

Van Neie

(From Indiana where we have no idea what the Sun looks like)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Van E. Neie ven@physics.purdue.edu
Dept of Physics PH: (765) 494-5511
Purdue University FAX: (765) 494-0706
1396 PHYS Bldg
W. Lafayette, IN 47907-1396

"[Those] who have an excessive faith in their theories or in their ideas
are not only poorly disposed to make discoveries, but they also make very
poor observations."

---Claude Bernard 1865