Colorful Facts About Colors That Will Surprise You (25 pics)

The color orange was named after the fruit. Before its name change, it was known in English as "geoluhread"

The following is an excerpt from a trade magazine in 1918 (when pink was still considered a boy color and blue was a girl color) – "The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl."

When UPS started out in Germany in 1976, locals got upset because the brown shirts were very reminiscent of the Nazi party. UPS changed the shirts to green.

Some women are tetra chromatic. This means they can perceive roughly 100 times the number of colors that a normal human can perceive.

Since the 1890s, pencils have been painted yellow. This is because the graphite came from China and in China yellow was the color of royalty. Therefore, pencil manufacturers began coloring their pencils yellow to show they contained the high quality Chinese graphite. And the color stuck.

Fake blood on the set of Sweeney Todd was orange colored in order to render correctly on the desaturated film

When Emerson Moser (Crayola's most senior crayon molder) was retiring he revealed that he was actually color blind.

The colored dots found on soda cans near the nutrition facts represent the colors used in the can design. This allows the company to troubleshoot their printers if one of the dots is faded or missing.

In 1962, Crayola's "flesh" color was renamed "peach"

Fire hydrant colors can be used to determine their water flow and pressure

During the 1980s, scientists showed that an enzyme in green coffee beans could turn any blood type into type O, the universal donor.

Cheddar cheese is only orange because it is dyed. In reality, its color changes according to the season and the cow's diet. Farmers started dying it to avoid these color fluctuations.

During the Middle Ages, dyers of fabric would either dye red or blue. Both groups had their own guilds and forbid their members from dying with the opposite color. So purple clothing was rare.

Studies have shown that redheads can require up to 20% more anesthesia during surgery

The US Army uses colorblind people to "see" camouflage. This is because they perceive certain colors in a way that people with normal vision don't.

Highlighters tend to be yellow because they don't leave a shadow on the page when they are photocopied.

Fernando Patolsky, an Israeli chemist, invented a "date rape straw". It changes color when you put it in a drink containing date rape drugs.

The matador's cape doesn't need to be red because the bull is color blind. It is said that the cape is red in order to hide the blood splatter from the audience (when the bull is finally killed)

Night vision goggles use green phosphor because the human eye can see more shades of green than any other color

Germany's Formula One color is silver because when one of their cars was overweight in 1934, they scraped off the paint. The car went on to win the race and the color stuck

Colorblind people tend to have better night vision

Horses have the largest eyes of any land animal and they have excellent night vision. Unfortunately, their vision is only dichromatic, meaning they can only see two colors.

Most people dream in color, but for those of you who grew up watching a monochrome television (probably not many), you most likely also dream in black and white.

Impossible colors, also called forbidden colors, are colors that are too complex for the human eye

The sun is actually white when viewed from space. The Earth's atmosphere makes it appear to be yellow.