Why does a black body never turn green when heated?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the question of why a black body heated to high temperatures does not appear green during its color transition, instead moving from infrared to red, orange, yellow, and then to white and blue. The conversation touches on aspects of physics and physiology related to color perception and black body radiation.

Discussion Character

  • Conceptual clarification, Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions why a black body does not turn green when heated, noting the sequence of colors it passes through.
  • Another participant argues that the explanation is physiological, suggesting that green is the middle of the visible spectrum and that a body producing green would also emit red and blue, resulting in a white appearance.
  • A third participant references the "ROYGBIV" acronym to summarize the color transitions associated with heating a black body.
  • A later reply acknowledges the clarification that a white appearance indicates the presence of blue, green, and red light.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on whether the explanation for the color transitions is primarily based on physiological perception or physical properties of black body radiation. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the primary reason for the absence of green in the color transition.

fluidistic
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I think it has been asked a lot of times and explained a lot of times, but as I've never seen the answer I post my question here.
Why does a black body never becomes green when it is heated? It pass from infrarred to red, orange, yellow but instead of passing to green, it then passes by white... and then blue, etc. I guess there's something quantum mechanics can explain.
 
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No it's purely physiological
Green is the middle of the visible spectrum so anybody heated to produce green will also produce a lot of red and blue. Red + green + blue looks white.
 
The old "ROYGBIV" for red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet summarizes the color transitions...
 
Ah thanks to both. I didn't realize that when a body is white, it means it's blue, green and red.
 

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