If black is the absence of colour...

[JAStewart]

Is 0 the absence of a number?

[Temporal Renegade]

Great...now you've made my brain hurt!

Why do I read this place before I have coffee? :D

[TX50]

Black is a colour; zero is a number.

[Bob Klase]

Black is a colour; zero is a number.

So if you remove all the color from a black object, what's left?

[Bikewer]

"Color" is a perceptual situation; depends on how objects absorb and reflect the various part of the electromagnetic spectrum that we call "visible light". Black objects absorb the greatest part of this segment of the spectrum. White objects reflect most of it.

[Charlie Monoxide]

You really live on the Shetlands? I guess you have to occasionally ease off on the sheep and wax philosophically ....

Charlie (1/2 Scot me self) Monoxide

[NobbyNobbs]

What would you call the absence of a point to the thread?

[triadboy]

What would you call the absence of a point to the thread?


Black and numberless.

[bjb]

In coordinate systems, a zero location is just as valid as any other. Maybe some people remember the (x,y) coordinate (0,0) as being the origin of the x-y plane. The origin is only a reference point and is treated like any other point in the plane.

[Nancarrow]

Zero is a number. A number is simply a member of a set of objects that obey certain kinds of mathematical relations. Which zero does.

No idea on the black is a colour thing. I do maths, not art.

[qayak]

Colours have nothing to do with numbers so even if black was the absence of colour, it wouldn't make 0 the absence of numbers.

Colour is a perception. It is how you perceive the light reflecting off an object. Black absorbs all light in the visible spectrum, white reflects all light in the visible spectrum.

However, black is definitely NOT the absence of colour, just the absence of light. I know this because the black cars that come through the shop have to be painted with a 'colour' just like any other colour of car. :p

[Mashuna]

If cold is the absence of heat, is sobriety the absence of alcohol?

[JAStewart]

If cold is the absence of heat, is sobriety the absence of alcohol?

Yes, but it doesn't explain it fully.

[joobz]

zero is a number. the absence of numbers is the null set, or empty set.

[m_huber]

Um.. Isn't color a property of how light is absorbed and reflected off of a surface? Thus making black more technically the absence of reflected light. Which changes the analogy.

[drkitten]

So if you remove all the color from a black object, what's left?


White. I spilled bleach on a nice black T-shirt a while back, and I've got the white marks to prove it.

[matthew 7-3]

Darkness is absence of light, and atheism is absence of hope?

[qayak]

Darkness is absence of light, and atheism is absence of hope?

And religion is absence of brain.

[Autolite]

Great...now you've made my brain hurt!


Really? Have you ever tried thinking up a new colour? That gives me migraines ...

[Nancarrow]

If black is the absence of colour, does that make octarine the absence of black?

[blobru]

...is sobriety the absence of alcohol?


If sobriety is the absence of alcohol, and drunkenness is the absence of sobriety, and prohibition is the absence of drunkenness, and the constitution is the absence of prohibition, and anarchy is the absence of the constitution, and dictatorship is the absence of anarchy, and freedom is the absence of dictatorship, and despair is the absence of freedom, and hope is the absence of despair, and hell is the absence of hope, is hell the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of alcohol, more or less?

:deconfus:

[Mashuna]

If sobriety is the absence of alcohol, and drunkenness is the absence of sobriety, and prohibition is the absence of drunkenness, and the constitution is the absence of prohibition, and anarchy is the absence of the constitution, and dictatorship is the absence of anarchy, and freedom is the absence of dictatorship, and despair is the absence of freedom, and hope is the absence of despair, and hell is the absence of hope, is hell the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of alcohol, more or less?

:deconfus:

Well obviously.

[triadboy]

If black is the absence of colour, does that make octarine the absence of black?

No. I believe Eskimos are the absence of black.

[Yiab]

Zero is the number usually used to represent the absence of amount.

[fishbob]

Zero is the number usually used to represent the absence of amount.

Hence the old saying: "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride".

[cyborg]

Cardinal or ordinal?

[doctoratlantis]

So if you remove all the color from a black object, what's left?

The flavor of the month. (hint: smells like booberry)

[bruto]

It all depends on what you mean by a color. If you take a bunch of colored paints and mix them all together, you get black, which implies that black is a color. If you are thinking of light, black is what you see when no color is reflected back to you, which implies that black is the absence of color.

I seem to remember from dimly remembered school days that zero is a number denoting the absence of countable objects, and that the absence of numbers is the null set.

[timhau]

If cold is the absence of heat

Oh crap. The only options are having a cold and acting like my cat did before we had her fixed? Doesn't sound fair.

[cloudshipsrule]

'Pecan', or 'Pecan'?

Here's the kicker on color: If you really think about visual perception and reflection/absorption of light, there is no such thing as color.

The red you see may actually be more blue to me!

[Yiab]

Cardinal or ordinal?

Since cardinals are also ordinals, ordinal.
Of course, at the level of the finite, all ordinals are cardinals, too.

[Beerina]

If black is the absence of colour, does that make octarine the absence of black?

Ya, thanks Dennis Miller. Octarine: The color of magic, a minor Discworld concept (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octarine#Octarine).

[NeilC]

I thought black was the absence of light rather than colour.

Colours don't exist in the physical world they are created in the eye and brain.

[Zamzara]

So if you remove all the color from a black object, what's left?

Colour is a necessary property of a visible object, so it can't be entirely removed.

[H3LL]

Categories - Aristotle (http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/categories.3.3.html)

.

[Michael Redman]

Zero is the number usually used to represent the absence of amount.
Hence the old saying: "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride".
:rolleyes:

[Irony]

So if you remove all the color from a black object, what's left?

An invisible object. Black may be the absence of reflected light, but it is not the absence of color.

[Skeptical Greg]

Hence the old saying: "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride".I always preferred the similar :

" Wish in one hand, spit *( or other favorite excretion )* in the other, and see which one fills up the fastest. "

[bjb]

Don't forget that black is also the color of an absent object, such as space or the night sky. Also, the color of a black object can change depending upon its temperature. One example of this is an electric heating element on a stove, which will be black (or at least very, very dark gray) at room temperature but turns red when the power is turned on. With this in mind, true 'black' is not only the absence of color, but the absence of energy as well, which is why I include an absent object in the black category (no object = no energy).

[chris epic]

Darkness is the absense of light; white is the absense of color; zero is not a 'real number,' but the distance between one and negative one; color is the absense of England's colour; black really isn't black, its just really really dark brown (atleast on animals);

[bjb]

The distance between one and negative one is two.

[Zygar]

Darkness is the absense of light; white is the absense of color;
Yes
zero is not a 'real number,' but the distance between one and negative one; color is the absense of England's colour; No black really isn't black, its just really really dark brown (atleast on animals);
Not always

[Darth Rotor]

If black is the absence of colour...

Then how did the "blacks" of the 1960's turn into "persons of color" in the 1990's? Were they absent minded? ;)

If sobriety is the absence of alcohol -- snip -- is hell the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of the absence of alcohol, more or less?
Regarding the absence (many time over of alcohol) = hell. (Might you be Irish? :) )

Yes.

Another reason to consider heaven a decent alternative: nectar. (I hear it's better than Wild Turkey.)

Hey, blobru, you just gave me a thought.

Heaven is filled with vampires.

Here is how I worked that out. Jesus' wine is blood. Jesus is in Heaven. If you want some wine in heaven, you go to Jesus, and you drink his blood. Vampires drink blood.

Might be some trouble with the logic, but I think I am on to something.

Oh, and if you get hungry, you eat his body, the bread.

So, in heaven, vampires and cannibals.

But no sushi. Hooray.

What, you think I'm batty? ;)

DR

[chris epic]

zero is not a 'real number,' but the distance between one and negative oneArgh...whoops...well, better think of something clever to make up for that mistake....infinity is the distance between one and negetive one...there we go *whew*:o