POLL: Dress colors

This is where all of the games are discussed.

Moderators: alietr, trainman, econgator, dhkendall

What colors is the dress in the picture?

White and gold
54
69%
Blue and black
24
31%
 
Total votes: 78

User avatar
Robert K S
Jeopardy! Champion
Posts: 5251
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2011 1:26 pm
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Contact:

POLL: Dress colors

Post by Robert K S »

Image

The weird thing is, there is a right answer. But no Googling before you vote.
Tpmorrison
Loyal Jeopardista
Posts: 146
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2014 9:34 am

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by Tpmorrison »

Spoiler
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-on ... lor-dress/

So I certainly acknowledge that I (and others who picked white & gold) are wrong, but it sure doesn't look like it to me!
User avatar
gamawire
Swimming in the Jeopardy! Pool
Posts: 1203
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 8:16 am

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by gamawire »

"It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing." -- Seneca
User avatar
opusthepenguin
The Best Darn Penguin on the Whole JBoard
Posts: 10319
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 2:33 pm
Location: Shawnee, KS
Contact:

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by opusthepenguin »

I already knew about this, but my vote remains the same. I disagree that the "right" answer is right. The white is actually a light bluish--sort of a periwinkle. The gold is exactly that--gold, albeit with some sections that are more gray. There is simply no reasonable way to claim that the colors in the picture are a deep royal blue and black.

So, of the two choices, "white and gold" is far closer to what the two colors demonstrably are. One of them is gold NOT black. The other is halfway between white and dark blue. That's what the science shows, regardless of the bizarre interpretations of that science that claim this means "blue and black" is the correct answer.

NOTE: This has nothing to do with what the colors of the physical dress actually are, only with the colors in the picture. I don't doubt that the colors in the picture can have been produced from a dress that, in the sunlight, is blue and black.
User avatar
BobF
Watches Jeopardy! Way Too Much
Posts: 2180
Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2011 3:03 pm
Location: All over the east coast
Contact:

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by BobF »

Did the picture change? I looked at it earlier and it appeared to be obviously one choice but the second look and it looked to be obviously the other choice.
Spoiler
white/gold first glance blue/black second time
Was once hugged by Maggie Speak!
User avatar
Robert K S
Jeopardy! Champion
Posts: 5251
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2011 1:26 pm
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Contact:

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by Robert K S »

The picture did not change, but I also experienced a swap. This morning at home I saw white and gold, and thought it impossible that anyone could see blue and black. Now, at work, it's clearly blue and black, and impossible that anyone could see white and gold. Not sure if the difference can be chalked up to different computer monitors, other different lighting conditions, or a physiological change over the course of the day.
User avatar
triviawayne
Hoping I don’t drown in this contestant pool
Posts: 2677
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 9:50 pm

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by triviawayne »

try changing the brightness on your screen while you look at the dress.
Total game show career losings = $171,522
User avatar
Woof
Swimming in the Jeopardy! Pool
Posts: 5125
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:53 pm

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by Woof »

I too had a reversal. When I first saw it on Facebook, it clearly looked white and gold, but now it clearly looks blue and grey. And no adjustment to monitor brightness changes that for me...
User avatar
earendel
Watches Jeopardy! Way Too Much
Posts: 767
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 3:22 pm
Location: mired in the bureaucracy

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by earendel »

Looks light blue and brown (not gold) to me.
"Elen sila lumenn omentielvo...A star shines on the hour of our meeting."
User avatar
gnash
Jeopardy! Champion
Posts: 1678
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:24 am

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by gnash »

earendel wrote:Looks light blue and brown (not gold) to me.
Same here.
User avatar
This Is Kirk!
Jeopardy! Champion
Posts: 6562
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2012 1:35 am
Location: Seattle

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by This Is Kirk! »

Woof wrote:I too had a reversal. When I first saw it on Facebook, it clearly looked white and gold, but now it clearly looks blue and grey. And no adjustment to monitor brightness changes that for me...
Same for me. I expected it to revert to white/gold after not having seen it for a few hours overnight, but it still looks blue/black and I can't even imagine how I ever saw it as white/gold. Very bizarre. I'd be convinced it's all an elaborate ruse except new people seeing it for the first time still seem to say it's white and gold.

Maybe we are all living in The Matrix.
Vanya
The support is non-zero
Posts: 2727
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2011 12:10 pm
Contact:

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by Vanya »

Well, my life is nothing to shout about, but I still see white and gold.

davey
Watches Jeopardy! Way Too Much
Posts: 6030
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:55 pm

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by davey »

gnash wrote:
earendel wrote:Looks light blue and brown (not gold) to me.
Same here.
Freethinkers!
Now that you mention it, if we're not stuck with binary choices this is what I see too.
User avatar
Robert K S
Jeopardy! Champion
Posts: 5251
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2011 1:26 pm
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Contact:

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by Robert K S »

This Is Kirk! wrote:I'd be convinced it's all an elaborate ruse except new people seeing it for the first time still seem to say it's white and gold.
Plus two people can look at it together simultaneously and see different things.
User avatar
opusthepenguin
The Best Darn Penguin on the Whole JBoard
Posts: 10319
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 2:33 pm
Location: Shawnee, KS
Contact:

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by opusthepenguin »

triviawayne wrote:try changing the brightness on your screen while you look at the dress.
I agree that I can force the colors to look black and medium blue by darkening them. I also agree that the "white" part is more blue than it appears to me in the context of the picture. But let me ask you this:

DO THESE LETTERS LOOK BLACK TO YOU?

If so, we really are seeing things differently or seeing different things. Because that's the color of the "black" part of the dress that isn't in shadow according to "the science". Those letters a) look gold to me, and b) look like the color of the "black" part of the dress that most of us see as gold.

The "black" parts of the dress that are in shadow are naturally darker and are more gray than gold. The grayness could theoretically be any of a broad range of colors hidden in shadow. Or it could just be colorless gray. But not black. It makes sense then to interpret that grayness in the context of what's apparently the same color only in better light. And in better light, the color is gold, the color of those big letters up there. Unless we disagree and those letters look black to you. If they do, that's interesting and I'm not sure what it means. (Try brightening your screen? ;) )
User avatar
opusthepenguin
The Best Darn Penguin on the Whole JBoard
Posts: 10319
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 2:33 pm
Location: Shawnee, KS
Contact:

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by opusthepenguin »

Woof wrote:I too had a reversal. When I first saw it on Facebook, it clearly looked white and gold, but now it clearly looks blue and grey. And no adjustment to monitor brightness changes that for me...
Blue and grey is just as close to the truth as white and gold, I think. But royal blue and black, which is what we're told the dress actually is? Nope. Not in that picture. People are invoking "science" to allege the contrary, but the science they're posting doesn't appear to me to support them.
bpmod
Rank
Posts: 5424
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 12:26 pm
Location: Hamilton Ontario

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by bpmod »

opusthepenguin wrote:DO THESE LETTERS LOOK BLACK TO YOU?
They do now.

Brian
...but the senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity.

If I had 50 cents for every math question I got right, I'd have $6.30 by now.
User avatar
This Is Kirk!
Jeopardy! Champion
Posts: 6562
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2012 1:35 am
Location: Seattle

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by This Is Kirk! »

opusthepenguin wrote: DO THESE LETTERS LOOK BLACK TO YOU?
No, they do not, but there's no way I can look at that dress photo now and not see it as blue and black. I can't explain the phenomenon. Is it because I now know the dress is really blue and black or something else? All I can say with certainty is that when I look at that photo now all I see is a blue and black dress, just as surely as I saw a white and gold dress the very first time I saw it.
Stanislaus Jacob
Watches Jeopardy! Way Too Much
Posts: 371
Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2014 10:52 pm

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by Stanislaus Jacob »

Opus, I am confused by your implication that light blue somehow does not count as blue. The blue/green boundary can be vague. The white/yellow boundary can be vague. But blue (even light blue) and white are very distinct and separate colors in my mind.

As for the other color, it looked black to me at first, but after staring at it for while I think it looks more brown - maybe a golden brown, but not true gold. But the blue is certainly blue, unless you have a very loose definition of "white" that somehow includes light blue.
User avatar
BigDaddyMatty
Hoping not to get pruney this time
Posts: 3300
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:05 am
Location: Anderson, IN

Re: POLL: Dress colors

Post by BigDaddyMatty »

davey wrote:
gnash wrote:
earendel wrote:Looks light blue and brown (not gold) to me.
Same here.
Freethinkers!
Now that you mention it, if we're not stuck with binary choices this is what I see too.
Ditto. This is a really interesting experiment to me because I have a weird, mild form of colorblindness that causes me to have trouble distinguishing some greens, browns, and grays. I had no idea whether others would see this the way I do. To me, the darker color is a generic earthy hue that is sort of a greenish brown or brownish green and the lighter color is indisputably a light blue.
Sprinkles are for winners.
Post Reply