Does the strength of the strong interaction depend on the colour of the quarks?

[jeebs]

My understanding of colour so far is that if we had, say, a baryon with quark content uuu, we would need to invoke a new quantum number that would allow each quark not to be in the same quantum state to avoid violating the Pauli principle.

Now apparently this new quantum number is called colour charge, and is the source of the strong interaction in the way that electric charge is for electromagnetism. Two questions:
Why has it been decided that this thing we call colour is responsible for generating an attractive potential? Is it just that we do not assign colour to anything that doesn't involve quarks, and quarks are the only ones who participate in the strong interaction, so the two must be related?
Does the strength of the strong interaction vary between which quarks are doing the interacting, for example, does red and blue attract stronger than red and green etc?

 

[Vanadium 50]

We name the thing that causes the strong force "color". It's true by definition.

The strength is color independent.

 

[jeebs]

We name the thing that causes the strong force "color". It's true by definition.

The strength is color independent.

but why have we linked what causes the strong force with the quantum number that had to be introduced to get around Pauli exclusion?

 

[Vanadium 50]

Occam. Why invent two new properties if only one will do?

 

[arivero]

Plus, if there were two different quantum numbers, we should observe a different spectrum, should we? Note the fundamental trick of obtaining "white" singlets for unconfined particles.

 

[Vanadium 50]

You will definitely have trouble antisymmetrizing the wavefunction if you blindly add a duplicate of color.