Caso WHITE

White is an achromatic color, literally a "color without color", composed of a mixture of frequencies of the light of the visible spectrum. It is one of the most common colors in nature, the color of sunlight, snow, milk, chalk, limestone and other common minerals. In many cultures white represents or signifies purity, innocence, and light, and is the symbolic opposite of black, or darkness. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, white is the color most often associated with perfection, the good, honesty, cleanliness, the beginning, the new, neutrality, and exactitude.[1]

In ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, priestesses wore white as a symbol of purity, and Romans wore a white toga as a symbol of citizenship. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance a white unicorn symbolized chastity, and a white lamb sacrifice and purity; the widows of kings dressed in white rather than black as the color of mourning. It sometimes symbolizes royalty; it was the color of monarchism after the French Revolution and of the White Russians who fought the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. Greek and Roman temples were faced with white marble, and beginning in the 18th century, with the advent of neoclassical architecture, white became the most common color of new churches, capitols and other government buildings. It was also widely used in 20th century modern architecture as a symbol of modernity, simplicity and strength.

White is an important color for almost all world religions. The Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, has worn white since 1566, as a symbol of purity and sacrifice. In Islam, and in the Shinto religion of Japan, it is worn by pilgrims; and by the Brahmins in India, In Western cultures and in Japan, white is the most common color for wedding dresses, symbolizing purity and virginity.

The white color on television screens and computer monitors is created with the RGB color model by mixing red, green and blue light at equal intensities.

In nature, snow and clouds appear white because they are composed of water droplets or ice crystals mixed with air; when white sunlight enters snow, very little of the spectrum is absorbed; almost all of the light is reflected or scattered by the air and water molecules, so the snow appears to be the color of sunlight, white.[2] Beaches with sand containing high amounts of quartz or eroded limestone also appear white, since quartz and limestone reflect or scatter sunlight, rather than absorbing it. Tropical white sand beaches may also have a high quantity of white calcium carbonate from tiny bits of seashells ground to fine sand by the action of the waves.[3]

Contents [hide]

1 White in nature and culture

2 Etymology

3 White in history and art

3.1 The Ancient World

3.2 The Middle Ages and the Renaissance

3.3 18th and 19th centuries

3.4 20th and 21st centuries

4 Science

4.1 Optics and white light

4.2 Why snow, clouds and beaches are white

4.3 Chemistry- white pigments and dyes

4.4 Bleach and bleaching

4.5 Astronomy

4.6 Biology

5 Associations and symbolism

5.1 Innocence and sacrifice

5.2 The beginning and the new

5.3 Weddings

5.4 Cleanliness

5.5 Ghosts, phantoms and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

5.6 Black and white

5.7 Names taken from white

5.8 White in other cultures

5.9 Temples, churches and government buildings

5.10 Government and politics

5.11 Religion

5.12 Ethnography

5.13 The white flag

5.14 Vexillology and heraldry

5.15

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