Science Explains Why Viral Dress Looks White and Gold
Last night Internet dwellers broke out in disagreement over the color of this dress. While some see the dress as blue and black, and others see it as white and gold, many just think it is the internet playing tricks on them.
According to TIME, it's actually not a trick but simple science! While the color of the physical dress is blue and black, the reason you see the colors differently has to do with the physiology of your individual eye and the lighting in the photograph.
As also explained by Wired, after light enters the eye lens it hits the retina, which is where connections are made with the visual cortex, the part of the brain "that process these signals into an image." The first burst of light you get into your eye before looking at the dress is what determines what color you see it as, because that light "is made of whatever wavelengths are illuminating the world [and] reflecting whatever you're looking at."
What's happening is you're looking at the image and trying to "discount the chromatic bias of the daylight axis." As a result people's eyes either reject the blue and black side and see white and gold or reject the white and gold side and see blue and black. Crazy!
Read more detailed information here!
- Janice Daniels, Good Day Sacramento