Blue
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Blue (disambiguation).
| Blue | ||
|---|---|---|
| — Color coordinates — | ||
| Hex triplet | #0000FF | |
| RGBa | (r, g, b) | (0, 0, 255) |
| HSV | (h, s, v) | (240°, 100%, 100%) |
| a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) | ||
The term Blue may refer any of a number of similar colors. When blue is a pure color from a single source, it corresponds with a wavelength range of about 440–490 nanometers. Blue is considered to be one of the three primary additive colors in the RGB system; blue light has the shortest wavelength range of the three additive primary colors. The English language commonly uses "blue" to refer to any color from navy blue to cyan. The complementary color of blue is yellow.
[edit] Blue in the RGB system
In the RGB color system, colors are formed by mixing a red, a green and a blue color. When talking about RGB, therefore, some people use blue to mean that specific blue, which varies in shade according to the device used to display the RGB colour. Absolute color spaces based on RGB, such as sRGB, define an exact color for this blue, which may differ from the actual blue used in a particular computer monitor.
[ and etymology">edit] Naming and etymology
[edit] Blue in English
The modern English word blue (german:blau) comes from the Middle English, bleu or blwe, which came from an Old French word bleu of Germanic origin (Frankish or possibly Old High German blao, "shining"). Bleu replaced Old English blaw. The root of these variations was the Proto-Germanic blæwaz, which was also the root of the Old Norse world bla and the modern Scandinavian word blå. it can also be green or orange occasionally(blue). A Scots and Scottish English word for "blue-grey" is blae, from the Middle English bla ("dark blue," from the Old English blædf*c*).
As a curiosity, blue is thought to be cognate with blond and black through the Germanic word. Through a Proto-Indoeuropean root, it is also linked with Latin flavus ("yellow"; see flavescent and flavine), with Greek phalos (white), French blanc (white) (loaned from Old Frankish), and with Russian белый, belyi ("white," see beluga), and Welsh blawr (grey) all of which derive (according to the American Heritage Dictionary) from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhel- meaning "to shine, flash or burn", (more specifically the word bhle-was, which meant light coloured, blue, blond, or yellow), from whence came the names of various bright colors, and that of colour black from a derivation meaning "burnt" (other words derived from the root bhel- include bleach, bleak, blind, blink, blank, blush, blaze, flame ,fulminate, flagrant and phlegm).
In the English language, blue may also refer to the feeling of sadness. "He was feeling blue". This is because blue was related to rain, or storms, and in greek mythology, When the greek god Zeus was sad, he would make rain, and when he was angry, he would create as storm.
[ and green in other languages">edit] Blue and green in other languages
Many languages do not have separate terms for blue and or green, instead using a cover term for both (when the issue is discussed in linguistics, this cover term is sometimes called grue in English). For example, in Vietnamese both tree leaves and the sky are xanh (to distinguish, one may use xanh lá cây "leaf grue" for green and xanh nước "water grue" for blue). Chinese has a word 青 qīng that can refer to both, though it also has separate words for blue (蓝 / 藍, lán) and green (绿 / 綠, lǜ). The Korean word (푸르다"puruda") can mean either green or blue. In Japanese the word for blue (青"ao") is often used for colours that English speakers would refer to as green, such as the colour of a traffic signal meaning "go". Some Nguni languages of southern Africa, including Tswana utilize the same word for blue and green. In traditional Welsh (and related Celtic languages), glas could refer to blue but also to certain shades of green and grey; however, modern Welsh is tending toward the 11-colour Western scheme, restricting glas to blue and using gwyrdd for green and llwyd for grey. Similarly, in Gaelic, glas can mean various shades of green and grey (like the sea), while liath is grey proper (like a horse), and the term for blue proper is gorm (like the sky or Cairngorm mountains). In Swedish, blå, the modern word for blue, was also used to describe black until the early 20th century. In many languages of India, blue is "buru or "blu-ru"
In the Lakhota Sioux Language, The word Tĥo is used for both blue and green.
[edit] Blue in Russian
On the other hand, Russian does not have a single word referring to the whole range of colours denoted by the English term "blue." Instead, it traditionally treats light blue (голубой, goluboy) as a separate colour independent from plain or dark blue (синий, siniy), with all 7 "basic" colours of spectrum (red - orange - yellow - green - (ru:голубой / goluboy / light blue, not equal cyan) - (ru:синий / siniy / dark blue) - violet); while in English the light blues like azure and cyan are considered mere shades of "blue" and not shades of a different color. To better understand this, consider that English makes a similar distinction between "red" and light red (pink, which is considered a different colour and not merely a kind of red), but such a distinction is unknown in several other languages; for example, both "red" (红 / 紅, hóng) and "pink" (粉红, fěn hóng, lit. "powder red") have traditionally been considered varieties of a single colour in Chinese.
[edit] Blue in Italian
Like Russian, Italian treats light blue ("azzurro") as a separate colour, which is to blue as pink is to red.
[edit] Blue in Turkish
Finally, it has been argued that Turkish treats dark or navy blue (lacivert, curiously from the same root as English azure and lapis lazuli) as a separate colour from plain or light blue (mavi). Mavi is etymologically originated from the Arabic word Ma'i, which meant "like water" (Ma is the Arabic word for water) and lacivert is originated from lajvard, which was accounted as an expensive gem with the colour of navy blue. Some historians argue that lajvard was the Farsi name for lapis lazuli, although there is no solid evidence to prove this claim right.
[edit] Blue in the environment
A clear sky on a sunny day appears blue because of Rayleigh scattering of the light from the Sun.
Large quantities of water appear blue because red light around 750 nm is absorbed as an overtone of the O-H stretching vibration. Heavy water is colourless, because the absorption band (~950 nm) is outside the visible spectrum.
[edit] Plants
- Blue agave (Agave tequilana var. weber) is a blue-leafed variety of the Mexican agave, used for making tequila.
- Bluebonnets are two lupine annual flowers in the Lupinus genus that are native to Texas: Lupinus subcarnosus and Lupinus texensis. They have a light blue appearance and palmately compound leaves. In Scots it refers to the bird Parus cœruleus.
- Bluebell may refer to both the bulbous plants in the Hyacinthoides genus of lilies, or the plants in the genus Mertensia.
- Blueberry refers to any of the plants in the genus Vaccinium, all of which have flowers with edible berries coloured blue to blue-black, which are also called "blueberries".
- Blue Flag Iris, Iris versicolor, also commonly known as the Harlequin Blueflag.
- Blue Jacaranda, an ornamental tree with blue flowers.
- Blue Spruce, a Rocky Mountain tree having silvery-blue or blue-green needlelike leaves.
[edit] Animals
- The Blue Jay is a bird within the family corvidae.
- Cobalt blue tarantulas are large, brightly coloured spiders.
- Hyacinth Macaw, as well as many other species of parrot.
- Bluebill is a synonym for scaup, the name for two diving ducks in the Aythya genus: Greater Scaup (Aythya marila) and Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis).
- Bluebirds are any of the North American songbirds in the genus Sialia: Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis), Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana), or Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides). They are medium-sized thrushes that usually have blue plumage and, in males, a rust-colour breast.
- Blueback salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) is a synonym for sockeye salmon.
- Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) are the largest animals in the world.
- Bluebottles or blow-flies are any of the flies in the genus Calliphiora that have a brightly-coloured metallic body and breed in decaying organic material. Bluebottle is also another name of the Portuguese man-of-war, Physalia.
- Blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) is a long bluish North American catfish species, often weighing more than 45 kg (100 pounds).
- Blue poison dart frogs (Dendrobates azureus) are poisonous South American frogs that bioaccumulate neurotoxins in their blue skin.
- Squirtle
When a dog or cat is described as having a "blue" coat, it refers to a shade of grey which takes on a bluish tint, and diluted variant of a pure black coat. Breeds such as the Kerry Blue Terrier dog and Russian Blue cat have solid "blue" coats, as does the "British Blue" variety of the British Shorthair cat. Others, such as the Australian Shepherd and Border Collie, may have blue merle coats, which is "blue" mixed in with a solid, usually brown or black, base colour. (See also Blue Dog Democrats, below).
The western skink has a brilliant cobalt blue tail.
[edit] Geography
[ and ranges">edit] Mountains and ranges
- Blå Jungfrun (the Blue Virgin), a small island hill off the coast of southeast Sweden, near the larger island of Öland, traditionally thought to be a meeting place of witches (according to tradition such a mountain is called Blåkulla, but only exists in legend)
- Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland. The name literally means blue rock heap
- Blue Mountains, sandstone mountain range west of Sydney, Australia. Other ranges termed the "Blue Mountains" are found in northeastern Oregon (North America) and elsewhere.
- Blue Ridge Mountains, eastern edge or front range of the Appalachian Mountains.
- Sinite Kamăni (Bulgarian: Сините камъни; The Blue Stones) is a rocky massive in Eastern Stara Planina Mountain immediately North of the town of Sliven in Bulgaria.
[edit] Rivers
- Blue Nile, a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia.
- Blue Earth River, a tributary of the Minnesota River in Minnesota, United States. Blue Earth is a translation of the Dakota Indian word Mahkato, meaning greenish blue earth. The Blue Earth River is named from the bluish green earth that was used by the Sisseton Dakota as a pigment, found in a shaley layer of the rock bluff of this stream about three miles from the river mouth.
[ and expressions">edit] Symbolism and expressions
Blue often denotes injury, such as in the phrase "black and blue," since it is the colour of a bruise. Blue is used also as a word to denote a sad or melancholy state, as in depression, or simply a state of deep contemplation (however, the phrase "blue skies," referring to sunny weather, implies cheerfulness). Symbolically, blue is associated with that state, such as the term blue period to describe Pablo Picasso's work from 1901 to 1904.
- The Blessed Virgin Mary is generally depicted wearing blue.
- Blue is generally associated with the cold. With white, blue is associated with ice and snow; and by extension, winter.
- Blue is associated with France, Quebec and the French Language. The term Les Bleus is often used in a sporting context. In all but motor sports, Italian colour is light blue, and Italian athletes are called Azzurri.
- Blue is considered a calming, soothing colour, perhaps related to its association with water and to the sky.
- Possibly due to ancient cultures' association of the sky with heavenly, untouchable powers, blue is sometimes associated with magic or magical powers.
- Blue is associated with the idea of infinity.
- Blue has the connotation of conservatism, tradition, and stability, in contrast with red which seems more radical, which is probably why blue is used more by conservative parties. Paradoxically, the more liberal U.S. Democratic Party has recently become associated with the colour blue, whereas red has become associated with the conservative Republican Party. This shift occurred in the 2000 Presidential election in which states which leaned toward Al Gore were coloured blue by the major news networks and those that leaned toward George W. Bush were coloured red. Why the United States runs contrary to the rest of the world on this matter is unknown, but it is sometimes attributed by liberals to the Republican Party's desire to appear to be the party of "red-blooded Americans", leaving the other "American" colour, blue, to the Democrats. Alternatively, some claim that liberals desired to dissociate themselves from a colour still seen by many Americans as a symbol of communism. Many American liberals also use green as a symbolic colour, the first major-party politician to do so was Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone, who used it as his primary trademark. This standardization is relatively recent: many older reference works, such as The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, had used blue to represent Republicans and red to represent Democrats, as did some media outlets. Time magazine, which used blue for Republicans and red for Democrats as late as the 2002 Congressional elections but switched to the more prevalent system for the 2004 presidential election, was probably the last major media outlet to adhere to the old colour scheme.
- Blue is often a colour used to symbolise honesty and trustworthiness. Hence it is used by mortgage companies and banks, as well as the clothing of businesspeople. This is possibly another reason for the Democratic Party's appropriation of the colour.
- Blue sky is a term used to describe the ability to conceptualize or create something from nothing. In other words, ex nihilo. it is a term that can describe a person, i.e. She's an amazing blue sky business analyst. it can also be used to illustrate constraints, i.e. You cannot work from a blue sky angle as there are limitations to what can be done for this project.
- In old Australian slang, a "blue" can also describe a fight or an argument. Men with red hair may be nicknamed "Bluey". The phrase "true blue" also means "genuine" (example : "He's a true blue Aussie").
- Blue comedy is comedy that uses references to socially taboo subjects such as sexual or lavatorial double entendre. Blue movie is a slang term for a pornographic film. There are also "blue magazines". This term is most common in Britain but also used in the United States and Israel.
- Blue law is the term for laws regulating issues of morality, such as alcohol, gambling, or pornography.
- Although blue is traditionally associated with boys as pink is associated with girls, there have also been periods in which pink was considered proper for boys and blue for girls, and times when no set colour convention appears to have been in place. [1]
- In Swedish the phrase blåögd (blue-eyed) can refer to a naïve person or to an idea that is naïve. Perhaps because blue eyes in some places are more common in children, but in Sweden blue eyes are common amongst adults, so the origin of the saying is unclear.
- Blue is a variety of credit card issued by American Express.
- The German word for blue is used for "drunk". "blau machen" (make blue) means to skip work.
- In auto racing, a blue flag advises a car to yield to faster traffic behind.
- Blue balls is a slang term for a temporary fluid congestion in the scrotum and prostate region. it is most commonly associated with adolescents but can occur in any sexually mature male.
- Royalty are sometimes described as having blue blood.
- A "blue chip" is the nickname for a stock that is thought to be safe and in excellent financial shape.
- In the United States, $1 bills are delivered by the Federal Reserve Bank in blue straps.
- Blue is the colour claimed by the Crips street gang.
- Blueprint is a term for a design of something, usually important items.
- Cooked blue is a term used to describe a steak served extremely rare.
- Blues associated with music and emotion, i.e. "The Blues" and "To have the Blues," has commonly summed an inexpressible feeling of powerful loss or philosophical understanding of oneself in relation to the world around you; without the ability to express this sum as any simple direct definition from an emotional standpoint. The "blues" and the music associated with it are a distinct socially recognizable emotional and musical classification.
[ and written works">edit] Books and written works
In the United Kingdom the traditional covering for Parliamentary and official publications and reports in the nineteenth century was a deep blue, and the reports came to be known as "blue books". In present usage a blue book is usually an almanac or similar reference work. For example, the Oregon Blue Book is the official directory and fact repository of the state of Oregon, while the Harvard Bluebook dictates a style of legal citation. The Blue Book is a term for a policy document issued by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States in 1946, urging television networks to uphold their commitment to public service. The Kelley Blue Book is a popular guide used for automobile prices.
A "blue examination book" is a book of blank, lined writing paper having a blue cover. it is often used in American schools and universities as a convenient place for students to write answers to problems and essays during an examination. A popular supplier of blue examination books is Roaring Spring Paper Products in Roaring Spring, PA, originally founded as the Roaring Spring Blank Book Company in 1887.
Blue pages are a telephone directory of government offices—either an official blue book or a section of a commercial directory. Compare with the yellow pages or white pages.
In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy there are many references to the and Species in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy">Hooloovoo, "a super-intelligent shade of the colour blue."
In House of Leaves every instance of the word House is in blue.
On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry is a book-length essay by William H. Gass.
In the non-canon Star Trek series Starfleet Corps of Engineers, there is a character called P8 Blue who is a civilian.
[edit] Prizes
"Blue ribbon" is a term used to describe something of high quality, such as a Blue-Ribbon Panel or a blue-ribbon commission. This comes from the practice of awarding blue ribbons for first place in competitions. The Blue Riband was a notional prize conferred since the 1860s to the ship that made the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing. The first ship actually to fly a blue pennant from her masthead upon winning this was the French liner Normandie in 1936.
[ and technology">edit] Mathematics, science, and technology
- IBM's chess computer (which defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov) was called Deep Blue.
- Users of Microsoft Windows often use the term "blue" to describe a computer that has encountered a "blue screen of death."
- A blue box is an electronic device with a tone pulsator that simulates a telephone operator's dialing console by replicating the tones used to switch long-distance calls and using them to route the user's own call, bypassing the normal switching mechanism. They were used to avoid charges for telephone calls.
- In medical diagrams, blue is used to represent veins carrying deoxygenated blood back to the heart. Deoxygenated blood is actually reddish violet. When a medical patient is not getting enough oxygen or has stopped breathing, however, their skin often takes a blue tint, a condition called cyanosis. The blue colour of veins is associated with deoxygenated myoglobin, a compound similar to hemoglobin and found in tissues.
- In astronomy, a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month, the third full moon in a season that has four, or a moon that appears blue because of particles in the atmosphere. All are uncommon enough that the expression "once in a blue moon" means "once in a great while" or "infrequently."
- Additionally, the colour blue is a trademark of the Dow Chemical Company. [2]
- In the CIE 1931 colour space, the complement of blue is yellow.
- Blue 80A filters are used to correct the excessive redness of tungsten lighting in colour photography.
- The Blu-ray and HD DVD formats utilize a blue-violet laser operating at a wavelength of 405 nm. Conventional DVDs and CDs use red and infrared lasers at 650 nm and 780 nm respectively.
- Bluetooth is an industrial standard for personal area networks, and is used to connect a variety of devices for the purpose of reliably transmitting information signals.
[ and university associations">edit] National, athletic, and university associations
Azzurro, a light blue, is the national colour of Italy (from the livery colour of the former reigning family, the House of Savoy).
Birmingham City F.C and Coventry City F.C. play in Royal Blue and Sky Blue respectivley.
Blue (along with white) is the national colour of Greece and Israel and the colour is seen on the Israeli and Greek flags.
Dark blue is associated with the University of Oxford and Florida International University. Reflex blue is associated with Savannah State University. Light blue is associated with the University of Cambridge. The sporting colours of these universities are called "the blues". Those who represent their university in certain sports are allowed to wear a blue blazer, and the selection of someone to represent their university is therefore known as being "awarded a blue". (At Cambridge, female students who are particularly attracted to male students with a blue are nicknamed "blue-tac"). The awarding of a Blue is followed by many universities in the Commonwealth of Nations for outstanding sporting achievement.
Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah is identified by a shade of light blue to differentiate from the University of Utah, which uses red. This color coding is especially apparent whenever the two universities play each other, which tends to divide the state into "Red Utah" and "Blue Utah."
A specific shade of dark blue is associated with Yale University. Blue Devils are the mascot of many American universities; Duke University's blue devils are the most famous. Ironically their rivals the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also uses a shade of blue as their school colour. This has led many to associate their school colours to differentiate shades of blue in daily occurrences, with the darker blue known as "Duke blue" and the lighter powder blue as "Carolina blue." Other universities with the mascot include Central Connecticut State University, Dillard University, Lawrence Technological University, State University of New York at Fredonia, and the University of Wisconsin-Stout. The University of Michigan wolverines' fans usually chant "Let's go blue!" during sporting events.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are a National Hockey League team based in Columbus, Ohio. The Blue Jays are the mascots of the Toronto Blue Jays, a Major League Baseball team, and its two minor league affiliates: the Dunedin Blue Jays in Dunedin, Florida, and the Pulaski Blue Jays in Pulaski, Virginia.
[ and military associations">edit] Social class, occupation, and military associations
Blue may denote the working class, derived from the traditional colour of factory uniforms. Blue-collar workers are industrial workers and are often contrasted with white-collar office workers. However, in contrast to "blue collar," the phrase "blue blood" is used to mean "from an aristocratic background," because pale, untanned skin–historically, a sign of nobility–allows blue-tinged veins to show through.
Several vocations are associated with blue. Law enforcement, and uniformed police, often wear blue uniforms and have become associated with the colour, as seen in phrases such as "boys in blue," "blue line," and "blue wall." Most police cars have blue colours, and United Nations peacekeepers are uniformed in blue and white. "Bluecoat" (akin to "redcoat") refers to a uniformed police officer. Police in the People's Republic of China changed the colour of their uniforms from green to blue in the late 1990s, partly to emphasize their civilian role. Since laws prohibit police from declaring a strike, the "blue flu" is a "sickout": a type of strike action in which police call in sick.
Blue is associated with many air forces and navies because of the colour of their dress uniforms, while green is associated with armies.
- Navy blue is a particular shade of blue worn by sailors in the Royal Navy since 1748 and subsequently adopted by other navies around the world. The Blue Angels are an acrobatic flight squadron of the United States Navy.
- In the United States Army, "Old Glory Blue" (Navy blue) is the colour of infantry, "Cobalt Blue" is the colour of the Chemical Corps, "Oriental Blue" is the colour of Military Intelligence, and Ultramarine Blue is the colour of the Army Aviation.
- When the United States Air Force became independent from the Army in 1947, it inherited ultramarine blue as its distinctive colour.
- The Royal Air Force and many other air forces use "Air Force Blue" (Sky blue) as their distinctive colour; however their uniforms are often in blue-gray or dark blue.
Blue has historically been used for many uniforms of the French military.
[edit] Political associations
- Main article: Political colour
Blue, like white, may represent authority, as opposed to revolutionary red or anarchist black.
Internationally, blue is the symbol for conservatism and conservative political parties. In Ireland, the political connotations of blue, denote the Fine Gael party, a Christian Democratic organisation and Ireland's traditional "law-and-order" party. The accompanying term Blueshirt is used as a term of abuse against them, linking them to the quasi fascist Blueshirts of the 1930s, from whom they are part decended. In the United Kingdom, it is the colour of the Conservative Party. There are several notable exceptions and different meanings other than the conservatism:
*In the United States, since the 2000 presidential election, blue represents the Democratic Party, and "blue states" are states that tend to favor the Democrats. (The rival right-wing Republicans became associated with red, and states that favor the Republicans are "red states." While there was no universal colour association prior to 2000, some electoral maps either used blue to represent the incumbent and red for the challenger, or alternated. Each party uses all three national colours (red, white, and blue) in official materials. The Blue Dog Democrat coalition is a caucus of conservative Democrats in Congress.
During the American Civil War, blue was used to represent the Union, while gray represented the Confederacy. This representation was based on the uniforms worn by the respective armies, although uniforms remained non-standard throughout the war and sometimes the colours were switched. The coalition with the Kuomintang (KMT), People's First Party, and the New Party in the Republic of China in Taiwan, which favors unification with mainland China is called the Pan-blue coalition due to the colour of the party banner of the Kuomintang which is considered the dominant party of the coalition.
[edit] Religion
Blue plays a symbolic role in a number of world religions. In the Hindu faith, persons of a transcendental, or divine nature are displayed as being blue in colour to indicate their dark complexion. The deity Krishna is probably the most famous of this type of depiction within Hindu art. Lord Shiva's neck has blue colour to show that the poison he took to save the world from destruction is still staying in his throat.
The inside of the open dome in Eastern Christian Churches is painted blue to give the impression of looking up into the heavens. Blue is also the colour Mary wears in iconography.
[edit] Blue in Judaism
Because blue is the colour of the sky and sea, it has often symbolized divinity, as well as height and depth. it can also represent equilibrium, since its hue suggests a shade midway between white and black, day and night. To the ancient Egyptians, blue was the colour of truth. To many Jews, because of its association with religious tradition, popular folklore, and the modern state of Israel, it has become the holy Jewish colour.
In the Torah, the Israelites were commanded to put fringes, tzitzit, on the corners of their garments, and to weave within these fringes a “twisted thread of blue (tekhelet).”[1] In ancient days, this blue thread was made from a dye extracted from a Mediterranean snail called the hilazon. Maimonides claimed that this blue was the colour of “the clear noonday sky”; Rashi, the colour of the evening sky.[2]
From ancient times, blue has been considered a lucky colour among the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa. Like their Arab neighbors, Jews of this region have painted their doorposts, heads, and other parts of their bodies with blue dyes; have ornamented their children with blue ribbons and markings; and have used this colour in protective amulets. Blue has been considered especially effective against the Evil Eye, perhaps because blue eyes are such a rarity among Semitic peoples and because blue is so rare in the plant and animal world.
According to several rabbinic sages, blue is the colour of God’s Glory.[3] Staring at this colour aids in mediation, bringing us a glimpse of the “pavement of sapphire, like the very sky for purity,” which is a likeness of the Throne of God.[4] (The Hebrew word for glory, kavod, means “blue” in Arabic.) Many items in the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary in the wilderness, such as the menorah, many of the vessels, and the Ark of the Covenant, were covered with blue cloth when transported from place to place.[5]
The Flag of Israel has two blue stripes and a blue Star of David against a white background. an early Zionist poem explains that the colour white symbolizes great faith; blue the appearance of the firmament.[6] (The original dark blue stripes were later lightened to heighten visibility at sea.) Because of its association with the State of Israel, blue has become very popular in contemporary Jewish design. Modern tallitot, for example, often have blue stripes on a white background.
[edit] References
- ^ Numbers 15:38.
- ^ Mishneh Torah, Tzitzit 2:1; Commentary on Numbers 15:38.
- ^ Numbers Rabbah 14:3; Hullin 89a.
- ^ Exodus 24:10; Ezekiel 1:26; Hullin 89a.
- ^ Numbers 4:6-12.
- ^ "Zivei Eretz Yehudah" (1860), Ludwig August von Frankl.
[edit] Television
Blue is the colour and name of the main character (a dog) in the preschool animated educational television show Blue's Clues.
On Star Trek, medical and scientific personnel wear blue uniforms.
On Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, there is a character named Blooregard Q. Kazoo, more commonly named Bloo, and pronounced blue. He is a blue bloblike imaginary friend.
[edit] Music
Blues is a music genre. A blue note is a note between the regular notes on the scale. Blue notes are the most important notes in the blues scale.
Bands called "Blue" include an Americain group and a British musical group: the American rock group Blue and the British boy band Blue. Blue is the title of an album by the Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, and Kind of Blue is the title of an album by Miles Davis, one of the world's best-selling jazz recordings. Blue Man Group is a performance art group founded in New York City in 1987.
Blue Train is an influential jazz album by John Coltrane. Rhapsody in Blue is a symphonic jazz composition for jazz band, piano, and orchestra by George Gershwin, while is Blue">Love is Blue is a popular tune from the 1960s originally recorded by Vicky Leandros and most notably performed by Paul Mauriat.
"Blue" has been used as a song title by many artists, notably LeAnn Rimes and Eiffel 65. Cristian Castro's song "Azul" (Spanish for "blue") repeats the line "This love is blue as the sea" (Este amor es azul como el mar).
A Nirvana bootleg recorded on November 22, 1989 is named "Out Of The Blue".
Other songs which use the word blue in their title include:
- "We the People Who are Darker than Blue" by Curtis Mayfield, appearing on his debut album
- "Blue Room in Archway" and "Song from the Blueroom" by The Boo Radleys, both appearing on the album Kingsize
- "Blue Jay Way" and "For You Blue" by The Beatles (both written by George Harrison), appearing on the albums Magical Mystery Tour and it Be (album)">Let it Be respectively
- "Blue Turns to Grey" by The Rolling Stones
- "Let Me Sing Your Blues Away" by the Grateful Dead, on the album Wake of the Flood
- "Stella Blue" by the Grateful Dead, on the album Wake of the Flood
- "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who, appearing on the album Who's Next
- "Blue" by Yoko Kanno, featured in hit Japanese anime Cowboy Bebop
- "Blue Savannah" by Erasure, appearing on the album Wild!
- "Dark Blue" by No Doubt, the last track on their album "Return of Saturn"
- "Tangled Up in Blue" by Bob Dylan, the first track on the album Blood on the Tracks
- "Miss Blue" by Filter, Appearing as the last listed track on the album Title of Record
- "The Blues are Still Blue" by and Sebastian">Belle and Sebastian
- "Blue Orchid" by The White Stripes is the first single for their fifth album, "Get Behind Me, Satan"
- "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65
- "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II
- "Blue Shades" by Frank Ticheli
- "Blue Calx" by Aphex Twin
- "The Blue" by David Gilmour, the third track on the album an Island">On an Island
- "Blue" by The Sugababes
- "Blue Monday" by New Order (original) as well as Orgy (remake / cover)
- "Post Blue" by Placebo
- "Out of the Blue" by Delta Goodrem, the first single on the album Mistaken Identity
- "Still Got The Blues" by Gary Moore, from the album of the same name
- "Blue Spanish Sky" by Chris Isaak from the album Heart Shaped World (on which Wicked Game is also recorded)
- "Never Seen Blue" by Tori Amos
- "Blue" by A Perfect Circle
- "Blue" by The Birthday Massacre
- "BLUE" by Utada Hikaru
- "Dark Blue" by Jack's Mannequin
- "Blue Veins" by The Raconteurs last track on Broken Boy Soldiers
[edit] Use in painting
Traditionally, blue has been considered a primary colour in painting, with the secondary colour orange as its complement, but this is not consistent with modern scientific colour theory. As the mixing of pigments is a subtractive colour process, the true primary colours in painting and printing are cyan, magenta and yellow (with black often added for practical reasons; see CMYK colour model).
The artist Yves Klein developed International Klein Blue.
[edit] Blue pigments
- Azurite
- Cerulean blue
- Cobalt blue
- Milori B
[edit] Natural standards of blue
- Emission spectrum of Cu2+
- Electronic spectrum of aqua-ions Cu(H2O)52+
[edit] See also
- Distinguishing "blue" from "green" in language
- List of colours
- Lapis lazuli
- Ceil
- Three Colours: Blue
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
| The Electromagnetic Spectrum (Sorted by wavelength, short to long) |
|
| Gamma ray | X-ray | Ultraviolet | Visible spectrum | Infrared | Terahertz radiation | Microwave | Radio waves | |
| Visible (optical) spectrum: | Violet | Blue | Green | Yellow | Orange | Red |
|---|---|
| Microwave spectrum: | W band | V band | K band: Ka band, Ku band | X band | C band | S band | L band |
| Radio spectrum: | EHF | SHF | UHF | VHF | HF | MF | LF | VLF | ULF | SLF | ELF |
| Wavelength designations: | Microwave | Shortwave | Mediumwave | Longwave |
| Web colours | black | silver | gray | white | red | maroon | purple | fuchsia | green | lime | olive | yellow | orange | blue | navy | teal | aqua |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
