Why Are Plants Green Instead of Black? 

I'm assuming you mean in reference to the sun it orbits. Seems probable.

The exoplanet's atmosphere might have some influence as well, but your idea looks like a good one

Assuming plants exist in other planet

@@andredepaulagomes It might filter some small bands out, but rayleigh scattering is universal.

@@calveras86 Some form of life that gains energy from the star will exist on an exoplanet.

Not necessarily Do you eat all the food you see?

They kind of are. They are on a strict blue and red light diet. No green light allowed

@@dutchik5107 Umm that's kind of personal

For many photosynthetics, especially marine ones, carbon dioxide or other nutrient availability is the key limiter of growth. Therefore, light is in relative excess.

@@RamdomView I think it's things like nitrogen that are limiting. I can't imagine CO2 being limiting for the last tens of millions of years

That's the power of that kind of question, every kid knows this instictively. If you notice, Stefan doesn't actually answer it either. He deftly skips it in favor of explaining what the plant uses the green colour for.

@@WormholeJim Yup, instead of answering why chlorophyll is green, he talks about why plants aren't not green. Both are interesting.

@@crediblesalamander8056 Yes, yes. Yes. It's the magic of math, indeed it is. By looking at the plant you can deduce something in it must be green.

@@crediblesalamander8056 that's just a part of science. It is much easier to prove a theory wrong than prove it right. So the theory that hasn't been proved wrong yet is the most right

I can answer that question kind of. First you have to ask how does the human eye see color? Light sends signals to the brain through your eyes. Now chlorophyll absorbs all colors except green. Any color that isn't absorbed bounces off and reflects back to you. Here is the trippy part. That means chlorophyll isn't actually green. That is just the one color in the light spectrum that isn't absorbed by it, so you are kinda still left with the question what is it's real color? Nobody knows because the only way to see the real color of anything would be to filter out the light, but if light is how the eye sees?? Are you seeing why that is so hard to figure out. This applies to anything you see. You are not seeing it's real color, but the color of the light not absorbed and reflected off of it's surface. It gets even more nuanced when you are talking about the colors of other stuff. Things that appear white are actually not absorbing any light, so it reflects all the colors at once which appears white to us. And to it's opposite, things that are black absorb all the colors which make it appear black to the eye because no colors are left to bounce off of it. An apple appears red because it can't absorb that particular color etc In other words, we can only explain how we perceive color.

Perhaps it was the mishap with gamma radiation that spawned Muscle Hank. :-)

This reaction also created Skinny Hank as a byproduct

Phenomenal question there Andre

People always ask why is hank green but never how is hank green

Not all 5th graders are know it alls. Plus many adults react a similar way, just with less shouting

JP Spears(with bandana on;):Well, you see,it's because of the chlorophyll we gots beer,weed and ayahuasca,so it's not like he/she's wrong.And oxygen,allegedly,but if you've gots those three,do you really need oxygen on a flat/hollow globe? You be the judge(Paul Harrel).

the part about absorbing light is more interesting than just knowing that the chlophyll is what absorbs it

when I was in 5th I'm pretty only me and my nerd friends knew what chlorophyl was

There's purple plants too.

@@Kavriel PBS Eons has a video on them (kinda). It's called 'when the Earth was purple'.

I never meant to cause you any sorrow I never meant to cause you any pain I only wanted to one time to see you laughing I only wanted to see you Laughing in the purple rain

@@Kavriel And red plants, since I see many around my town :)

Plants that are purple, or red, or any other color, are that way due to some sort of pigment, usually to attract insects or protect itself from burns or the cold, rather than create energy. We have red algae and purple algae that use different pigments for the photosynthesis, though.

Yeah the theory doesn't super hold up lol... there's tons of colored plants

There are plants with black foliage... and red foliage... and purple foliage... think about the purple lettuce in your salad.

This title is anti namek

Is anti hank

@@koopametalpack but pro mr popo

green light bad reee

Its racist

Makes sense, there are no materials that can reflect 100% of light

Power grids do not cook or sweat or die when there are no sun so probably not.

It's a numbers game

Are they an under canopy tree( a tree that grows best in shade)?

@@blade97 I've always seen them planted out in the sun. I don't know what their natural environment is like, but there's more than one species like that, I just don't know the names.

@@tpope2044 Anthocyanins are the pigments, and they absorb UV light, so it's likely a sunscreen. I'm sure there are other reasons for it, but I'm no expert.

Same thing with cherry plums

@@DANGJOS Either that or for whatever reason, they might have a high melanin content in them.

Scribe13 🤭

Getting tired of his shirt.

also: when i search for "why green", top result is "why is my poop green?" - by scishow

I remember that video too. I was wondering if this new theory means they don't think that happened anymore.

Yeah, I was sitting here too remembering them explaining this completely differently just some months ago!

The darth vader begonia is pretty black

Black mold: "Am I a joke to you?"

there's some plum trees by my house that black/very dark purple

There's lollo rosso, aquilegia, black pennisetum, black heuchera, black bamboo, sambucus nigra and many other nearly completely black plants.

@@OsedayCan: "Yer mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of _S. nigra!"_ --Some scientifically-minded French person, probably.

•_•

this was such a bad joke that i demand a written apology

YAY for Dad Jokes! 😃

@@DrywallJackson I demand a full apology video.

Good luck, cocaine

Astrobotnist

Many

@@Ewr42 thank you :)

Shakhter Siren' I was really wondering if someone was gonna mention that

Hi

No they wouldn't. If they were green it would mean they reflect some wavelengths instead absorbing them and turning into energy, plants are alive and need to care about things like not killing their cells while we are able to build solar panels that can withstand higher temperatures

I wonder if they would be black, green is the peak of Sun's spectrum and red giants or white dwarfs might have peak outside of visible spectrum. So maybe in that case plants would try to absorb whole visible spectrum because it's not as intense

lol your comment, pfp and username are hilarious

@@цветок-ш7п Lmao thanks. :,)

Wow.

Just normal atmospheric gasses. Maybe a little depleted of CO2 and a bit more water vapor. Plant tissues are full of air spaces that are continuous throughout the plant and connect to the outside of the plant through stomata and lenticels.