Exploring Trichromacy through Maxwell's Color Experiment (2023)

#1

Post by niwrad » Sat, Jun 28, 2025, 9:55 PM UTC

I built an interactive which recreates one of James Clerk Maxwell’s lesser-known color experiments that helped discover the trichromatic theory—remarkably accurate, even by today’s standards.

Please do let me know if you have any additional questions or feedback about my interactive!

Exploring Trichromacy through Maxwell's Color Experiment (2023)
maxwell.kohterai.com

Re: Exploring Trichromacy through Maxwell's Color Experiment (2023)

#2

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 28, 2025, 11:18 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Exploring Trichromacy through Maxwell's Color Experiment (2023)

#3

Post by stephenlf » Sun, Jun 29, 2025, 4:00 PM UTC

Awesome read. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Exploring Trichromacy through Maxwell's Color Experiment (2023)

#4

Post by niwrad » Sun, Jun 29, 2025, 5:27 PM UTC

stephenlf wrote: post #3

Awesome read. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for the encouraging words! I’m glad you enjoyed it.

Re: Exploring Trichromacy through Maxwell's Color Experiment (2023)

#5

Post by Etherlord87 » Mon, Jun 30, 2025, 8:16 AM UTC

https://i.imgur.com/EWqdwMV.png

Re: Exploring Trichromacy through Maxwell's Color Experiment (2023)

#6

Post by turnsout » Tue, Jul 01, 2025, 6:49 PM UTC

This is awesome—I had never read about this experiment. I'm using the CMF quite heavily right now as I develop a spectral color management system. It's amazing that Maxwell was able to essentially plot out the CMF so early!

Re: Exploring Trichromacy through Maxwell's Color Experiment (2023)

#7

Post by rogerallen » Tue, Jul 01, 2025, 7:23 PM UTC

Very nice article. I don’t think I was aware of these experiments, but maybe I’ve forgotten?

Apologies if I just missed this, but is there a link to Maxwell’s original findings?

Re: Exploring Trichromacy through Maxwell's Color Experiment (2023)

#8

Post by klaff » Tue, Jul 01, 2025, 8:44 PM UTC

Nice work! I really enjoy learning how people did these experiments and learned such fundamental stuff with only "stone knives and bear skins"!

Re: Exploring Trichromacy through Maxwell's Color Experiment (2023)

#9

Post by niwrad » Tue, Jul 01, 2025, 8:53 PM UTC

rogerallen wrote: post #7

Very nice article. I don’t think I was aware of these experiments, but maybe I’ve forgotten? Apologies if I just missed this, but is there a link to Maxwell’s original findings?

Thank you!

Maxwell's "color wheel" experiment (https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PH-CAVENDISH-P-02000/1) is more commonly known, which preceded this experiment I wrote about. (Which by the way is also a very clever experiment which blends color by spinning a wheel with different ratios of primary colors).

Here's a link to Maxwell's original paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstl.1860.000...

You can see some diagrams of his original apparatus that I worked off of in the last two pages!

Re: Exploring Trichromacy through Maxwell's Color Experiment (2023)

#10

Post by niwrad » Tue, Jul 01, 2025, 8:57 PM UTC

klaff wrote: post #8

Nice work! I really enjoy learning how people did these experiments and learned such fundamental stuff with only "stone knives and bear skins"!

Absolutely — these old papers are fascinating. I was also surprised by how much insight is packed into them, especially considering how non-trivial some of it is to unpack. My professor and I spent quite a bit of time reconstructing how the experiment worked from the limited figures.