Yea! Caleb's here!!!! I picked him up from the airport. That was the trip from hell, but I don't want to talk about it. Bottom line is, we're fine, no accidents or anything. Just lots of driving around in circles and getting stopped by the police, but like I said, I don't want to talk about it.
If you don't get my parents' email update, please be praying for my mom and Josiah. They were in a small accident when my mom was rear ended at a traffic light. The two of them are ok, but are very sore. The car they were in, which was supposed to be mine next year, is totaled. Go figure...
Anyway, on to happier things. The question of the week!!!! I thought that with all the driving incidents, this would be appropriate:
Why do traffic lights use red, green and yellow for the respective meanings?
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
life and the question of the week...
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10 comments:
ok, you're like the fastest person ever to respond to my blog. i hadn't even gotten to look at it since posting and you'd already commented. very cool to be you =)
From: http://ask.yahoo.com/20031023.html
The first crude traffic light was a manually operated gas lantern installed in London around 1868. The signal consisted of two colors -- red meant "stop," while green meant "caution." One day the lantern exploded and injured the policeman who was operating it. It was painfully obvious a more efficient traffic signal was needed.
In 1920 Police Officer William Potts addressed the chaotic traffic of Detroit, Michigan, by co-opting the red, amber, and green automatic traffic light system used on railroads. Around the same time, the prolific African American inventor Garrett Morgan devised and patented the precursor to the automatic traffic lights we use today.
Apparently the colors of red and green were standard in the electrical industry at the time. The makers of railroad signals and traffic lights simply adopted the familiar color scheme.
We can really only speculate as to why these colors were originally used in the industry. An About.com entry on color symbolism points out that different colors evoke different emotions in humans. Red generally symbolizes danger or warning, making it a good choice for "stop." Green is calming to us, probably because it is prolific in nature and a sign of health and abundance, so it might have lent itself to mean "go."
Curiously, yellow or amber, is associated with warmth, happiness, and the sun. Despite these connotations, it was chosen to symbolize "caution." Perhaps because it contrasts well with green and red, and is highly visible without being too harsh on the eyes of motorists. Today, yellow is commonly used as a warning symbol for both traffic signs and alert systems.
1) the fact that you researched that is pathetic
2) you just ruined it for people who haven't gotten a chance to answer
3) thanks for researching that, i'm very happy to know
4) love ya!!!
Well, I don't have to answer anymore questions... if you don't want to know, don't ask
RED: The red used in the traffic lights is a lot more appealing to people. Therefore they automatically stop driving, just so they can enjoy looking at the color for awhile.
GREEN: Unlike it's counterpart, red, the green used in traffic lights do not appeal to people. Generally, they find it too bright and harsh. So instead of stopping to look at it like they do with red, people want to get away from it as fast as possible, which is why the keep driving.
YELLOW: Yellow is a warning to drivers that the color will change soon. So when the people who are sitting there, watching the red, see the yellow, they know the green is coming soon so they hurry and drive on. In the same way, when they see the yellow after the green, they know the red is coming, so they stop to enjoy looking at the red.
Love you!
but what about people like me? i HATE red, remember???
Well, obviously now people don't just sit and stare at red lights. My explanation was about WHY they chose those colors WAY back when traffic lights were made.
Because society is so rushed these days, people don't have the time, energy, or the desire to simply take a few minutes to enjoy the red color of the traffic lights.
You see, while it did start out the way I described it, society has slowly evolved so that everyone has forgotten the orgins of the colors, and they now simply associate red with stop and green with go. So it doesn't really matter if you like the color red or not because your brain naturally associates red with stop. It's not about enjoying the color anymore.
Bravo, Shannon - bravo.
so are you saying that back in the day everyone liked red? there weren't people like me who get a twitch whenever they are around it too much?
Jana ... you are one of a kind. There was never any other person like you and there never will be.
But to answer your first question, of course there were people who didn't like red! However, the majority of people, including the 'ton' did like the color red.
So it didn't matter if you didn't like the color red - you'd stop anyways because society bade you to stop.
There was once one man, I believe his name was Philip Hatching, who was stupid enough not to stop when it changed to red ... the rest of his life he was an outcast - looked down upon by even the most humble of people. People learned after that never to make that kind of error again. If society said stop at the color red, you stopped at the color red. Though it wasn't really a chore to most people, as, like I said, the majority did like the color red. However, the few people who didn't stopped anyways. Nobody wanted to become another Philip Hatching.
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