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Biography
Redirect|DarkAbout|the absence of light Darkness , in contrast with brightness , is a relative absence of visible light . It is the appearance of black in a color space. When light is not present, rod cell|rod and cone cell s within the Human eye|eye are not stimulated. This lack of stimulation means photoreceptor cell s are unable to distinguish color frequency and wavelength . The resulting perception is achromatic and in the case of darkness, black. The emotional reaction to darkness has metaphorical importance in many cultures.
Scientific
A dark object absorbs photons , and therefore appears dim in comparison to other objects. For example, matte black paint does not reflect visible light and appears dark, but white paint reflects all visible light and appears bright.cite paper | author = Mantese, Lucymarie | title = Photon-Driven Localization: How Materials Really Absorb Light | publisher = American Physical Society | date = March 2000 | url = http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000APS..MAR.E2001M | accessdate = 2007-01-21 For more information see color .
However, light cannot simply be absorbed without limit. Energy , like visible light, cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be converted from one type of energy to another. Most objects that absorb visible light reemit it as infrared light.cite paper | author = Dr. Denise Smith | title = Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum: The Herschel Experiment | publisher = Space Telescope Science Institute | url = http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/work_con_lec/astro_wkshp_res/boston_herschel.ppt | format = powerpoint | accessdate = 2007-01-21 |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20070206175002/ http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/work_con_lec/astro_wkshp_res/boston_herschel.ppt |archivedate = 2007-02-06 So, although an object may appear dark, it is likely bright at a frequency that a human being cannot see. For more information see thermodynamics .
A dark area has limited light sources, making things hard to see. Exposure to alternating light and darkness (night and day) has caused several evolutionary adaptations to darkness. When a vertebrate , like a human, enters a dark area, its iris (anatomy)|iris dilates, allowing more light to enter the eye and improving night vision . Also, the light detecting cells in the human eye ( rods and cones ) will regenerate more unbleached rhodopsin when adapting to darkness. One scientific measure of darkness is the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale , which indicates the night sky's and stars' brightness at a particular location, and the observability of celestial objects at that location. (See also: Sky brightness )
Cultural
see|Light and darkness
Poetic
As a poetic term in the Western world , darkness can also mean the presence of shadows, evil, or depression. Religious texts often use darkness to make a visual point. In the Bible , darkness was the second to last plague (Exodus 10:21) and the location of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:12) http://www.biblegateway.com/ BibleGateway.com The Qur’an has been interpreted to say that those who transgress the bounds of what is right are doomed to “burning despair and ice-cold darkness.” (Nab 78.25)cite web | title = Online translation of The Quran | url = http://www.islamicity.com/quransearch/ | accessdate = November 2010
In Chinese philosophy Yin and yang|Yin is the feminine part of the Taijitu and is represented by a dark lobe.
The use of darkness as a rhetorical device has a long standing tradition. Shakespeare, working in the 16th and 17th centuries, made a character called Satan, the “ prince of darkness ” ( King Lear : III, iv) and gave darkness jaws with which to devour love. ( A Midsummer Night’s Dream : I, i)cite web | last = Shakespeare | first = William | title = The Complete Works | publisher = The Tech, MIT | url = http://shakespeare.mit.edu/ Chaucer, a 14th century Middle English writer, wrote that knights must cast away the “workes of darkness.”cite book | last = Chaucer | first = Geoffrey | title = The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems | date = 14th century | location = The Second Nun’s Tale | url = http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2383 Dante described hell as “solid darkness stain’d.”cite book | last = Alighieri | first = Dante | coauthors = Translated by: Henry Francis | title = The Divine Comedy | date = 14th century | url = http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8800
In Old English there were three words that could mean darkness: heolstor , genip , and sceadu .cite book | last = Mitchell | first = Bruce | coauthors = Fred C. Robinson | title = A Guide to Old English | publisher = Blackwell Publishing | year = 2001 | location = Glossary | pages = 332, 349, 363, 369 | isbn = 0-631-22636-2 Heolstor also meant “hiding-place” and became holster. Genip meant “mist” and fell out of use like many Germanic strong verb|strong verb s. It is however still used in the Dutch language|Dutch saying "in het geniep" which means secretly. Sceadu meant “shadow” and remained in use. The word dark eventually evolved from the word deorc .cite web | last = Harper | first = Douglass | title = Dark | work = Online Etymology Dictionary | month = November | year = 2001 | url = http://www.etymonline.com | accessdate = 2007-01-18
Artistic
unreferenced-section|date=January 2010Artistically, darkness can also be used to emphasize or contrast with light. See chiaroscuro for a discussion of the uses of such contrasts in visual media.
Color paints are mixed together to create darkness, because each color absorbs certain frequencies of light. Theoretically, mixing together the three primary colors, or the three secondary colors, will absorb all visible light and create black. In practice it is difficult to prevent the mixture from taking on a brown tint.
The color of a pixel|point , on a standard 24-bit computer display , is defined by three numbers between 0 and 255, one each for red, green, and blue. Because the absence of light creates darkness, darker colors are closer to (0,0,0).
Paintings may use darkness to create leading lines and voids , among other things. These shapes are designed to draw the eye around the painting. Shadows add perspective.
