Yellow

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This article is about the color. For other uses, see Yellow (disambiguation).

Yellow

— Spectral coordinates —
Wavelength		570–580 nm
— Commonly represents —
age/aging, warmth, cowardice, caution, girls, happiness, slow, sunshine, the Orient, electricity
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#FFFF00
sRGB^B	(r, g, b)	(255, 255, 0)
Source		HTML/CSS^[1]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

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, but does not significantly stimulate the S (short-wavelength) cone cells; that is, light with much red and green but not very much blue.^[2] Light with a wavelength of 570–580 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of somewhat longer and shorter wavelengths. Yellow's traditional RYB complementary color is purple, violet or indigo. Yellow's colorimetrically defined complementary color in both RGB and CMYK color spaces is blue.

[edit] Electric yellow vs. process yellow

[edit] Electric Yellow

Yellow
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#FFFF00
sRGB^B	(r, g, b)	(255, 255, 0)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(60°, 100%, 100%)
Source		HTML/CSS^[1]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

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.^[3]

[edit] Process yellow

Process yellow (subtractive primary, sRGB approximation)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#FFEF00
RGB^B	(r, g, b)	(255, 239, 0)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(56°, 100%, 100%)
Source		[1] CMYK
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

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.

Reflectance spectra of yellow pigments, as a percentage of white (Abney 1891)

Complements of yellow have a dominant wavelength in the range 380 to 480 nm. The green lines show several possible pairs of complementary colors with respect to different blackbody color temperature neutrals, illustrated by the "Planckian locus". Three examples are shown: a 580 nm yellow is complementary to a 435 nm indigo with respect to a 2800 K white; a 580 nm yellow is complementary to a 480 nm blue with respect to a 5000 K white; and a 575 nm yellow is complementary to an extreme violet with respect to a 3600 K white.

[edit] Etymology and definitions

The word yellow comes from the Old English geolu, or geolwe which derived from the Proto-Germanic word gelwaz.^[4] The oldest known usage 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.^[5] In the English language, yellow is used to describe objects having the color between green and orange in the visible light spectrum (gold, egg yolks, sunflowers, etc.). The color is associated with age and aging, both with people and objects (e.g. yellowed-paper). Ethnographically, the term yellow has also been used as a slang term for both oriental persons and light-skinned African-Americans. The term is associated at times with jealousy, as well as cowardliness. Lastly, it is associated with sensational journalistic practices, or yellow journalism, and resistance to militant trade unions.^[5]

[edit] Complements of yellow

Hunt^[6] 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." That is, when two colored lights can be mixed to match a specified white (achromatic, non-colored) light, the colors of those two lights are complementary. This definition, however, does not constrain what version of white will be specified. In the nineteenth century, the scientists Grassmann and Helmholtz did experiments in which they concluded that finding a good complement for spectral yellow was difficult, but that the result was indigo, that is, a wavelength that today's color scientists would call violet. Helmholtz says "Yellow and indigo blue" are complements.^[7] Grassman reconstructs Newton's category boundaries in terms of wavelengths and says "This indigo therefore falls within the limits of color between which, according to Helmholtz, the complementary colors of yellow lie."^[8] Newton's own color circle has yellow directly opposite the boundary between indigo and violet. These results, that the complement of yellow is a wavelength shorter than 450 nm, are derivable from the modern CIE 1931 system of colorimetry if it is assumed that the yellow is about 580 nm or shorter wavelength, and the specified white is the color of a blackbody radiator of temperature 2800 K or lower (that is, the white of an ordinary incandescent light bulb). More typically, with a daylight-colored or around 5000 to 6000 K white, the complement of yellow will be in the blue wavelength range, which is the standard modern answer for the complement of yellow.

[edit] Plants and animals

The yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) is a birch species native to eastern North America, from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and southern Quebec west to Minnesota, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia. They are medium-sized deciduous trees and can reaching about 20 m tall, trunks up to 80 cm in diameter. The bark is smooth and yellow-bronze and the wood is extensively used for flooring, cabinetry, and toothpicks.

Yellow-breasted Chat

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 bellies and a yellow throat and breast, with a long tail, a thick heavy bill, a large white eye ring, and dark legs.
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.
Yellow-green alga, also called xanthophytes, is a class of algae in the Heterokontophyta division. Most live in freshwater, but some are found in marine and soil habitats. They vary from single-celled flagellates to simple colonial and filamentous forms. Unlike other heterokonts, yellow-green algae's chloroplasts do not contain fucoxanthin, which is why they have a lighter color.

Yellowhammer

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.
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.
Yellow poplar is a common name for Liriodendron, the tuliptree. The name is inaccurate as this genus is not related to poplars.
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.
Yellowtail is the common name for dozens of different fish species that have yellow tails or a yellow body.
Goldenrod is a yellow flowering plant in the Family Asteraceae
A Yellow Labrador Retriever refers to the lightest color that occurs in the breed, lighter than chocolate and back Labrador retrievers.

[edit] Yellow in human culture

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[edit] Astronomy

Stars of spectral class G, such as our sun Sol, have a color temperature that we characterize as "yellowish".
The planet Saturn is yellowish, like a class G star.

[edit] Calendars

Yellow is associated with Monday on the Thai solar calendar. Anyone may wear yellow on Mondays, and anyone born on a Monday may adopt yellow as their color.

[edit] Cultural associations

In the English language, yellow has traditionally been associated with jaundice and cowardice. In American slang, a coward is said to be "yellowbellied" or "yellow".
"Yellow" ("giallo"), in Italy, refers to crime stories, both fictional and real. This association began about in 1930 because the first series of crime novels published in Italy had a yellow cover.
Pencils are often painted yellow, originally because of the association of this color with the Orient, where the best graphite was found.

The phrase "Yellow Yellow, dirty fellow" is used by children to mock someone wearing yellow.
Yellow movies = blue movies in Chinese (黃色電影) reference:[[2]]

[edit] Ethnography

Asian people are sometimes referred to as the yellow race. The use of "yellow" to refer to people of East Asian descent is usually regarded as offensive today in most contexts. In early 20th-century North America, immigrants from China and other East Asian nations were derogatorily referred to as a "yellow peril."
A High yellow is African-American slang for someone who is a very light-skinned African-American. This term was widely used in the early 20th century but it is seldom heard nowadays.

[edit] Games

Yellow is the color of the snooker ball that has a 2-point value.
A semi-popular game in the UK is "Yellow Car", which involves yelling "Yellow Car" and striking someone close to you on spotting a yellow car. There are multiple variations of this game depending on area or group played with, but the above is the common rule between them.

[edit] History

The legendary first emperor of China was known as the Yellow Emperor or Huang Di (Chinese: 黃帝, Simplified Chinese: 黄帝).
The Yellow Turbans were a Daoist sect that staged an extensive rebellion during the Han Dynasty.

[edit] Journalism

The Yellow Kid

"Yellow journalism" was 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.

[edit] Literature

The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

[edit] Medicine

Yellow is associated with jaundice, since someone who has that disease may turn yellow.

[edit] Mining

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.

[edit] Music

The Beatles 1966 album Revolver (album) features the #1 hit, "Yellow Submarine."
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.

[edit] Mysticism

In the metaphysics of the New Age Prophetess, Alice A. Bailey, in her system called the Seven Rays which classifies humans into seven different metaphysical psychological types, the fourth ray of harmony through conflict is represented by the color yellow. People who have this metaphysical psychological type are said to be on the Yellow Ray. "^[9]
In Hinduism, yellow is used to symbolically represent the third, solar plexus chakra (Manipura).^[10]
Psychics who claim to be able to observe the aura with their third eye report that someone with a yellow aura is typically someone who is in an occupation requiring intellectual acumen, such as a scientist.^[11]

[edit] 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.
The Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) has made use of yellow, along with black, as its primary party colors.
In the 1986 People Power Revolution, yellow was the dominant theme, the color being associated with former president Corazon Aquino.

[edit] Sports

In Association football (soccer), the referee shows a yellow card to indicate that a player has been officially cautioned.
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.

Folland Gnat T.Mk1 during a display at Kemble Air Day, England, in 2008. This aircraft is painted in the yellow colour of a former RAF display team - the Yellowjacks.

[edit] 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, and British bus operators such as FirstGroup plc are attempting to introduce the concept there
"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. It is intermediate between green (go) and red (stop). In railway signaling, yellow is often the color for warning, slow down, such as with distant signals.
Several light rail and rapid transit lines on various public transportation have a Yellow Line.

[edit] Vexillology

In International maritime signal flags a yellow flag denotes the letter "Q". It also means a ship asserts that it does not need to be Quarantined.

[edit] Yellow pigments

[edit] See also

Look up Yellow in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Yellow

[edit] References

This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes.
Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (February 2007)

^ ^a ^b W3C TR CSS3 Color Module, HTML4 color keywords
^ James W. Kalat (2005). Introduction to Psychology. Thomson Wadsworth, 105. ISBN 053462460X.
^ Craig F. Bohren and Eugene E. Clothiaux (2006). Fundamentals of Atmospheric Radiation. Wiley-VCH. ISBN 3527405038.
^ Online Etymology Dictionary
^ ^a ^b Oxford English Dictionary
^ J. W. G. Hunt (1980). Measuring Color. Ellis Horwood Ltd. ISBN 0-7458-0125-0.
^ Hermann von Helmholtz (1924). Physiological Optics. Dover.
^ Hermann Günter Grassman (1854). "Theory of Compound Colors". Philosophical Magazine Vol. 4: 254–264.
^ Bailey, Alice A. (1995). The Seven Rays of Life. New York: Lucis Publishing Company. ISBN 0853301425.
^ Stevens, Samantha. The Seven Rays: a Universal Guide to the Archangels. City: Insomniac Press, 2004. ISBN 1894663497 pg. 24
^ Swami Panchadasi The Human Aura: Astral Colors and Thought Forms Des Plaines, Illinois, USA:1912--Yogi Publications Society Page 33

[edit] External links

All About the Color Yellow

v • d • e Electromagnetic spectrum

← shorter wavelengths longer wavelengths → Gamma rays · X-rays · Ultraviolet · Visible · Infrared · Terahertz radiation · Microwave · Radio

Visible (optical)	Violet · Blue · Green · Yellow · Orange · Red

Microwaves	W band · V band · Q band · K_a band · K band · K_u band · X band · S band · C band · L band

Radio	EHF · SHF · UHF · VHF · HF · MF · LF · VLF · ULF · SLF · ELF

Wavelength types	Microwave · Shortwave · Medium wave · Longwave

v • d • e Shades of yellow
Amber	Apricot	Beige	Buff	Chartreuse yellow	Corn	Cream	Dark goldenrod	Ecru	Flax

Gamboge	Golden	Goldenrod	Golden poppy	Golden yellow	Green-yellow	Khaki	Lemon	Lemon chiffon	Lime

Metallic gold	Mustard	Navajo white	Old Gold	Olive	Papaya whip	Peach-yellow	Pear	Saffron	School bus yellow

Selective yellow	Tangerine yellow	Yellow

v • d • e Web colors
black	gray	silver	white	red	maroon	purple	fuchsia	green	lime	olive	yellow	blue	navy	teal	aqua

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