Comment Re:why are sensors in RGB instead of CMY? (Score 1) 184
A green filter allows through half of pure cyan and half of pure yellow light. Cyan and yellow together constitute 2/3rds of your defined color space in different combinations. In order to have a basis vector for the color spectrum (really what we're looking for), we need magenta as well, of which a green filter absorbs 100%. So your green filter allows through 1/2 of 2/3rds of your spectrum = 1/3
A cyan filter allows through 100% of cyan light, 50% of yellow light (the green part), and 50% of magenta light (the blue part).
That's a total of 2/3rds of the available spectrum.
Each filter of RGB absorbs 2/3rds of the spectrum.
Each filter of CMY absorbs 1/3rd of the spectrum.
You can linearly combine either set of color filters to get all achievable colors.
A cyan filter allows through 100% of cyan light, 50% of yellow light (the green part), and 50% of magenta light (the blue part).
That's a total of 2/3rds of the available spectrum.
Each filter of RGB absorbs 2/3rds of the spectrum.
Each filter of CMY absorbs 1/3rd of the spectrum.
You can linearly combine either set of color filters to get all achievable colors.
