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[–] 5 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I'm still not following. What part of "blue air" imparts chlorophyll with its color? I get the sun. I understand how light works (reflection, refraction, and scattering). I understand our perception of light on a neuological level (including post-processing) to an extent that most people haven't studied. Why "blue" air make green plant?

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  • [–] 4 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (2 children)

    Air is light blue because it filters out red, which is why chlorophyl has optimized for the mix of the remaining wavelengths yellow and blue, which is green. Color theory of additive blending.

    (Our sun is slightly yellow, which is why the sky isn't cyan and why alot of tropical plants are darker green close to brown/red)

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  • [–] 2 points 7 hours ago

    Are you saying that chlorophyll naturally evolved to take in specific wavelengths of light given the availability of light in specific frequencies in response to how the sun's light moves through our amosphere? I would get it, but that would be so frustrating of a response to, "why air blue matter".

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  • [–] 5 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    My guess would be that plants optimize also for absorbing a significant amount of the light they receive from the blue sky, so they still get some when direct sunlight isn't available.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 hours ago (1 child)

    I hate that one misclick can delete my comment.

    Would that be a natural, logical discernment for someone trying to figure out why chlorophyll is green? I say that this is an unhinged take and everyone siding with it should feel like... an amount of bad. It's pretty misleading by virtue.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Mix blue and yellow paint and you end up with green paint.

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