Gray (spelled grey in Commonwealth English) is a colour seen commonly in nature. It is created by mixing white and black in different proportions. Depending on the amount of light, the human eye can interpret the same object as either gray or some other colour.
Two colors are called complementary colors if they make gray when combined. The psychological primary colors, with their RGB coordinates, are:
Black (0 0 0) and White (255 255 255)
Blue (0 0 255) and Yellow (255 255 0)
Red (255 0 128) and Green (0 255 128)
Other sets of complementary colors include
Orange (255 83 0) and Sea blue (0 172 255)
Lime (83 255 0) and Purple (172 0 255)
And of course, gray is its own complement, with RGB coordinates of 128 128 128.
Usage, symbolism and colloquial expressions
- 'Gray life', meaning mere existence without much sense or goal.
- Gray was used as the colour of the uniforms of Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War, as opposed to the blue uniforms of Union soldiers.
- In a moral sense gray is either used
- pejoratively to describe situations that have no clear moral value, or
- positively to balance an all-black or all-white view (i.e. shades of gray = magnitudes of good/bad)
- Gray is associated with autumn, bad weather, and sadness.
- The hair becomes gray as one ages, and hence gray is associated with senior citizens, as inspired the name of the Gray Panthers.
- The substance that composes the brain is referred to as 'gray matter', and for that reason the color is associated with things intellectual.
Other meanings:
- Gray (unit) the absorbed dose of radiation.
- Gray, France is a town in France.
- Grey District, New Zealand is a district around the town of Greymouth, New Zealand, named after the Grey River, New Zealand.
- Grey River, Newfoundland
- The Grey Range is a mountain range in Australia.
- The Grays are supposed extraterrestrial beings that are part of various conspiracy theories.
- Gray, Georgia, United States of America
- Gray, Maine, United States of America\n
