On the Nature of Colors

[tallakahath]

I suspect this has been answered before, but I'm having trouble finding the right combination of search terms...

Awakening uses two sources: color, and breaths. The breaths are (mostly) recovered (looking at the discussion here), but the colors are not. So, what happens in the following circumstance:

 

I hand an awakener a carrot, a vial of copper(II) sulfate in water, and a dead butterfly of the genus morpho.

 

• The awakener drains the color from the carrot to fuel an awakening. The color in the carrot is provided by carotenes, such as beta carotene, via the electronic properties of the long chain of conjugated pi-bonds along the length of the molecule. To change the color would require altering or destroying the chemical structure of the carotenes, as to push the absorption spectrum of the material outside of the human-visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. I take the now-drained carrot and put it through a variety of chemical tests (GCMS, Vibrational Spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, C13 and D NMR), what do I get? Do I see "carotene" that (for unknown reasons) doesn't absorb the right colors? Do the spectroscopic results have a weird "dead zone" at some (set of) wavelength(s)?
• The awakener drains the color from the copper(II) sulfate. The color is provided by the available discrete energy levels of the electrons of the copper(II) ions, changing (or removing) the color would require reducing (or further oxidizing) the copper. If the copper is reduced, it would precipitate out of solution as metallic copper, or at least go to copper(I). I filter and dry the solution, and analyze the resulting powder/pellet, what do I see?
• The awakener drains the color from the dead butterfly. The brilliant blue color of the butterfly is provided not by chemistry, but by structure: the scales of morpho butterflies are structured as to cause interference between different wavelengths/phases of incident light, resulting in a perceived blue hue (at most viewing angles). I take the drained butterfly and observe it under an electron microscope and observe the microstructure: what do I see?

Ancillary questions: can IR or UV colors be used to fuel awakening, can someone with Tetrachromacy awaken using additional colors, and, does being colorblind or even entirely blind impact one's ability to use awakening (do you need to be aware of the color to use it, if not, then why limit the colors used to "visible to the human eye" if that isn't a consistently applied rule?)?

[Yata]

A little premise, I am not enough in the chemestry to actually argue on your experiment. I could only answer about the part I have some knowledge about.

As far as we see, the Awakening drain the color regardless of someone perception. A blind man who awaken something will drain to the same grayish of someone with the sight (not tent Heighening considerate). In this context I don't think IR or UV actual make a difference at all.

There is a WoB on Colorblind people, it mainly say something "also without colors, they will be able to feel the difference, it's hard to explain to me as I am not color blind, but their mind will understand the difference also without a proper visualization" (not exact wording)

[Pattern]

Dyes seem to be quite important in Hallandren economy, so I would suspect that mostly dyes like carotene are used for Awakening- meaning a breaking of the dye molecules to remove visible color. I think I remember someone using his own blood as color, too. The red color results from oxidated iron, so draining the color should mean the reduction of iron happens then.

Butterflies as well as thin oil films should not work as a color source for Awakening. The impression of color results from interference. The bending of light at the tenth hightening looks similar to me (its described like a prism), so light of different wavelengths is bent slightly different and the impression of color results. Those colors are never shown being used for Awakening (that working would equip the God King with an infinite source of color for Awakening), probably because it isn't possible.

Summarizing I think chemical pigments (be it molecular or atomic) work for Awakening while the butterfly should keep it's brilliant hue. The chemical pigments ouf the butterfly could be drained, but that would not remove the percieved color resulting from interference.

[Farnsworth]

When the color is removed, I am fairly certain that the molecular structure of the substance stays the same. The carrot would still have carotene, the copper (II) sulfate would not be reduced or oxidized. What changes is the the structure of the atom. Color is created by energy entering an atom, getting the electrons into an exited state, and then the electrons going back into a non-exited state and creating energy by doing that. That energy is the color. During awakening, the molecular structure stays the same, but the energy in the color goes towards awakening.

[Themasterhunter]

I think that this is more a matter of perception. Once you drain something of color to awaken another thing, you perceive it as being dead, ( because you used it as an end negative fuel ) and the investiture takes the perception of color and drains it. This makes more sense then draining somethings (chemical structure) which would cause it to turn into something else entirely. The color drained is the color perceived, not the actual structural wavelength or shape that it is. most of the awakening system which is similar to that on sel (especially after reading the emperors soul) focuses and uses perception and distortion more than actual structure, or science as we understand it.

Edited April 30, 2017 by Themasterhunter
Clarity