Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light. Mixing paints, inks or other pigments of all colors in theory eventually forms a mixture which absorbs all light and so appears black. Thus black is sometimes wrongly called 'a mixture of all colors', while in fact an object emitting or reflecting all colors is perceived as white. Sometimes black is described as an "achromatic color", but in practice it can be considered a color, as in expressions like "black cat" or "black paint".

Color or light in science

Black can be defined as the visual impression experienced in directions from which no visible light reaches the eye. (This makes a contrast with whiteness, the impression of any combination of colors of light that equally stimulates all three types of color-sensitive visual receptors.)

Pigments that absorb light rather than reflect it back to the eye "look black". A black pigment can, however, result from a combination of several pigments that collectively absorb all colors. If appropriate proportions of three primary pigments are mixed, the result reflects so little light as to be called "black".

This provides two superficially opposite but actually complementary descriptions of black. Black is the lack of all colors of light, or an exhaustive combination of multiple colors of pigment. See also Primary colors

† various CMYK combinations

c	m	y	k
0%	0%	0%	100%	(canonical)
100%	100%	100%	0%	(ideal inks, theoretical only)
100%	100%	100%	100%	(registration black)

In physics, a black body is a perfect absorber of light, but by a rule derived by Einstein it is also, when heated, the best emitter. Thus, the best radiative cooling, out of sunlight, is by using black paint, though it is important that it be black (a nearly perfect absorber) in the infrared as well.

In elementary science, far Ultraviolet light is called "black light" because, unseen (per se), it causes many minerals and other substances to fluoresce.

On January 16, 2008, researchers from Troy, New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute announced the creation of the darkest material on the planet. The material, which reflects only .045 percent of light, was created from carbon nanotubes stood on end. It absorbs nearly 30 times more light than the current standard for blackness, and is 3 times darker than the current record holder for darkest substance. Scientists claim that the new material has great potential in the manufacturing of solar panels.

Absorption of light

In keeping with the law of conservation of energy, as a black color surface absorbs the light particles that hit it, the surface's particles are getting excited (excited particles = higher temperature).

Usage, symbolism, colloquial expressions

Neutral symbolism

Some of these can be seen as positive or negative, depending on one's stance. For example, superstitions related to black cats hold them to be bad luck in the U.S. and good luck in the UK.

Authority and seriousness

Black can be seen as the color of authority and seriousness.

• In Japanese culture, kuro (black) is a symbol of nobility, age, and experience, as opposed to shiro (white), which symbolizes serfdom, youth, and naiveté. Thus the black belt is a mark of achievement and seniority in many martial arts. These ranks are called dan.
• In the long-running Japanese tokusatsu TV series Super Sentai (and its American counterpart, Power Rangers), black is one of the colors worn by the eponymous heroes.
• Black was the color of the Arab dynasty of Abbasid caliphs, which is the reason black is frequently used in flags of Arab countries.
• The riot control units of the Basque Autonomous Police in Spain are known as beltzak ("blacks") after their uniform.
• Traditionally, police vehicles ("panda cars") were in black and white.
• Black Watch is the senior Highland Regiment of the British Army.

Clothing

• Black tuxedos are worn at formal occasions known as black tie functions.
• Many performers of European classical music or other serious art music dress in black for a concert or recital.
• Lawyers and judges often wear black robes.
• Academic dress includes black robes for graduates.
• Black is worn by religious figures within Christianity, e.g. priests (especially of the older religious denominations), monks and nuns.
• Black is worn by Hassidic Jews.
• Black is worn by some Muslim women; see List of types of sartorial hijab for photographs of examples such as the abaya.
• Members of the modern goth, emo and punk subcultures dress predominantly in black (see also punk fashion).

Demography

• The term "black" is often used in the West to denote the race of people whose skin color ranges from light to darker shades of brown. For a discussion of usage, see the main entry at Black people and color terminology for race.

Philosophy

• In arguments, things can be black-and-white, meaning that the issue at hand is dichotomized.
• In ancient China, black was the symbol of North and Water, one of the main five colors.

Politics

• The List of black flags, although not exclusively political, gives many political meanings.
• Black is used for anarchist symbolism, sometimes split in diagonal with other colors to show alignment with another political philosophy. The plain black flag is explained in various ways, sometimes as an anti-flag or a non-flag. Wearing black clothing is also sometimes an anarchist tactic during demonstrations, with a practical benefit of not attracting attention and making later identification of a subject difficult. This strategy is referred to as a black bloc.
• In Portuguese politics, black (and red) is the party color of the Left Bloc.
• The blackshirts were Italian Fascist militias.
• The black triangle was used by the Nazis to designate "asocial" people (homeless and Roma, for example); later the symbol was adopted by lesbian culture.

Popular culture

• Johnny Cash was commonly referred to as "The Man in Black" due to his preference for black clothing. His song "Man in Black" presents it as a show of solidarity with the outcasts of society.
• "Black Hole Sun" is an award-winning (1995 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance) song by the Seattle band Soundgarden from their albums Superunknown (1994) and A-Sides (1997).
• Black metal is a style of music including bands such as Darkthrone and Mayhem.
• The folk song "Black Is the Color (of My True Love's Hair)".
• The band AC/DC sang "Back in Black", a song about being successful and ambitious once again.
• Amy Winehouse's Grammy Award winning song and album Back to Black

Science

• The term "black hole" is applied to collapsed stars. This term is metaphorical in the extreme, because few properties of black objects or black voids apply to black holes. However, light emitted within a black hole's event horizon cannot escape, hence a black hole cannot be directly observed.
• Black sky refers to the appearance of space as one emerges from the Earth's atmosphere.

Sport

• The national rugby union team of New Zealand is called the All Blacks, in reference to their black outfits, and the color is also shared by other New Zealand national teams such as the Black Caps (cricket) and the Kiwis (rugby league).
• Association football (soccer) referees traditionally wear all-black uniforms, however nowadays other uniform colors may also be worn.
• A large number of teams have uniforms designed with black colors - many feeling the color sometimes imparts a psychological advantage in its wearers. Among the more famous (or infamous) include Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL, the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat of the NBA, and Inter Milan of the Serie A of the Italian soccer leagues.
• In auto racing, a black flag signals a driver to go into the pits.

Ambiguity and secrecy

• Black frequently symbolizes ambiguity, secrecy, and the unknown.
• A black box is any device whose internal workings are unknown or inexplicable. In theatre, the black box is a smaller, undecorated theater whose auditorium and stage relationship can be configured in various way.
• A black project is a secretive project, like Enigma Decryption, other classified military programs or operations, Narcotics, or police sting operations.
• Some organizations are called "black" when they keep a low profile, like Sociétés Anonymes and secret societies.
• A polished black mirror is used for scrying, and is thought to help see into the paranormal world without interference or distraction.

Positive symbolism

• Black can also be seen as the color of prestige: for example, limousines are usually in black.

Beliefs, religions and superstitions

• In the Maasai tribes of Kenya and Tanzania, the color black is associated with rain clouds, a symbol of life and prosperity.
• The medieval Christian sect known as the Cathars viewed black as a color of perfection.
• The Rastafari movement sees black as beautiful.
• Native Americans associated black with the life-giving soil.
• The Hindu deity Krishna means "the black one".

Economy

• To say one's accounts are "in the black" is used to mean that one is free of debt.
• Being "in the red" is to be in debt—in traditional bookkeeping, negative amounts, such as costs, were printed in red ink, and positive amounts, like revenues, were printed in black ink, so that if "the bottom line" is printed in black, the firm is profiting.
• Black Friday (shopping) occurs the day after Thanksgiving and is, statistically, the largest shopping day in the US. The idea is that the shopping that begins on this day can put a company into the black (i.e., make a profit) for the year.

Fashion

• In Western fashion, black is considered stylish, sexy, elegant and powerful.
• The colloquialism "X is the new black" is a reference to the latest trend or fad that is considered a wardrobe basic for the duration of the trend, on the basis that black is always fashionable.

Negative symbolism

Colloquially, black is sometimes used with a negative connotation. The reasons for this are various, but the most widely accepted explanations are that night is experienced by humans as negative and dangerous. A secondary reason is that stains are most visible as dark additions to pale materials. In traditional class-based Western cultures "pale" skin indicated genteel domestic or intellectual indoor-work as opposed to rough outdoor labor in the fields. Aspects of this black/white opposition are not unique to the West, as, for example in the Indian varna system and in Japanese Geisha makeup. African, Afro-Caribbean and African-American writers such as Frantz Fanon, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and Ralph Ellison in particular identify a number of negative symbolisms surrounding the word "black", arguing that the good vs. bad dualism associated with white and black provide prejudiced connotations to color terminology for race. Some people associate black with evil and destruction as it naturally absorbs all light and even the Black Hole is described as 'nature's ultimate fury'.

Beliefs, religions and superstitions

• Black is a symbol of mourning and bereavement in Western societies, especially at funerals and memorial services. In some traditional societies, within for example Greece and Italy, widows wear black for the rest of their lives. In contrast, across much of Africa and parts of Asia, white is a color of mourning and is worn during funerals.
• In English heraldry, black means darkness, doubt, ignorance, and uncertainty.

Symbolic dualism with white

• Black magic is a destructive or evil form of magic, often connected with death, as opposed to white magic.
• Evil witches are stereotypically dressed in black and good fairies in white.
• Melodrama villains are dressed in black and heroines in white dresses.
• In many Hollywood Westerns, bad cowboys wear black hats while the good ones wear white.
• In computer security, a blackhat is an attacker with evil intentions, while a whitehat bears no such ill will. (This is derived from the Western convention.)

Historical events

• A "black day" (or week or month) usually refers to a sad or tragic time. The Romans marked fasti days with white stones and nefasti days with black.
• E.g., Black Tuesday, stock market crash on October 29, 1929 which is the start of the Great Depression.
• Black Thursday, stock market downturn on October 24, 1929
• Black Monday, stock market crash on October 19, 1987.
• Black Wednesday caused Britain to pull out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.
• Black Friday, various tragic events. (Exception: See Black Friday (shopping).)
• the Black September in Jordan refers to a month in which thousands were killed.
• Black July killing of the Tamil population by the Sinhalese government in Sri Lanka.
• Black Spring (Printemps noir) refers to the events of spring 2001 in the Berber region of Kabylia (Algeria), when the police shot and killed more than 100 people.

• Black Death, also known as the Black Plague, was a pandemic in Europe which killed tens of millions of people.
• The infamous Black Hole of Calcutta.

Popular culture

• Many poems and songs use the word black negatively (e.g. "Paint It, Black" (Rolling Stones), "Baby's In Black" (Beatles), "Black Eyed Dog" (Nick Drake), "Black Sun" (The Cult),"Fade to Black" (Metallica, Dire Straits, Zeromancer), "Black" (Pearl Jam).

Expressions

• The black market is used to denote the trade of illegal goods, or alternatively the illegal trade of otherwise legal items at considerably higher prices, e.g. to evade rationing.
• Black comedy is a form of comedy dealing with morbid and serious topics.
• A blacklist is a list of undesirable persons or entities (to be placed on the list is to be "blacklisted").
• To blackball someone is to block their entry into a club or some such institution. In the traditional English gentlemen's club, current members vote on the admission of a candidate by secretly placing a white or black ball in a hat. If upon the completion of voting, there was even one black ball amongst the white, the candidate would be denied membership, and he would never know who had "blackballed" him.
• Blackmail is the act of threatening to reveal information about a person unless the threatened party fulfills certain demands. This information is usually of an embarrassing or socially damaging nature. Ordinarily, such a threat is illegal.
• The black sheep of the family is the ne'er-do-well.
• A black mood is a bad one (cf Winston Churchill's clinical depression, which he called "my black dog").
• If you sink the black eight-ball in billiards before all others are out of play, you lose. (The ball with which you sink all others is the white cue ball).
• A black mark against you is a bad thing.
• A black-hearted person is mean and unloving.
• Black propaganda is the use of known falsehoods, partial truths, or masquerades in propaganda to confuse an opponent.

Pigments

Black pigments include carbon black, ivory black, ebony, onyx and charcoal black.

References

See also

• List of colors
• Black triangle

External links

• All About Black

Black is a first-person shooter for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, developed by Criterion Games (also the developers of the Burnout games) and published by Electronic Arts. Black is essentially a “run and gun” shooter with some minor “stop and pop” tactics, with few mission objectives and a “kill 'em all” strategy. There is a distinct lack of blood and gore in the game however, perhaps as a tie-in with its Hollywood stylings. Criterion Games have recently stated that they are not making a sequel.

The game was released on February 24, 2006 in Europe and on February 28, 2006 in the United States. A demo was released January 18, 2006. On February 11, 2008 Black was released for the Xbox 360's Xbox Originals download service.

Development

Criterion intended to "do for shooting what Burnout did for racing - tear it apart", with dual emphasis on destructible environments and the handling and behavior of real-world firearms. Bullets that hit buildings, terrain and objects leave visible damage; moreover, the guns are rendered with great detail and accuracy (though some weapons' features are stylized or exaggerated). The emphasis on the appearance, function, and sounds of the weapons led the developer to label the game ironically as "Gun-Porn. Another notable and original feature is the use of real-time blur whilst reloading, giving a depth of field and more perspective to the game. Similarly, when the player drops below 2 bars of health, the screen turns black and white, the sound of the character's heartbeat become the dominant noise and the game goes slower, almost as if in bullet-time, and the large and small motors in the control pads match the sound of systolic and diastolic part of the heartbeat.

Story

Black takes place in Eastern Europe, placing the player in the shoes of a "black ops" soldier named Sergeant First Class soldier Jack Kellar. Kellar tells most of the story in first-person at an interrogation four days after the events in the story begin.

Kellar is a poorly disciplined member of a CIA black ops group and a veteran of several conflicts including Guatemala, Colombia, Iran and Croatia. The unknown interrogator questions Kellar about an arms smuggling and terrorist operation called the Seventh Wave. Seventh Wave have been responsible for a number of terrorist attacks. Kellar is told that, unless he cooperates, he and his actions will be declassified, he will be dishonorably discharged and imprisoned for life. Though initially resistant, Kellar at last agrees to tell his story.

Four days earlier, Kellar and his group were assaulting a Seventh Wave strong-hold in the city of Veblensk. Kellar kills three high-ranking members of the cell but then disobeys orders by rushing inside a terrorist controlled building, where a terrorist ambushes him. However, the man did not kill Kellar, who learns that his captor is an American, a former CIA wetworks operative, William Lennox. After faking his own death in Cairo, Lennox has apparently become the leader of Seventh Wave.

Kellar's next mission is to cross the border into Treneska and traverse the Vlodnik Cannal, destroy a base and weapons cache, then meet an agent named MacCarver, the leader of black ops Team Bravo, at a farmhouse. Things did not go as planned; however, Kellar defends and clears the farmhouse and later meets MacCarver.

Kellar and MacCarver begin a mission to destroy an arms factory in the city of Naszran. To safely complete the mission they must navigate an old graveyard and town, both heavily defended. After doing so, they assault the town's iron foundry, destroying its productive capacity. The two black operatives then meet a third member of the team, Solomon.

The next operation resumes the search for the Seventh Wave leader Valencio, who has recently sheltered in an abandoned asylum. After destroying all resistance, Kellar again disobeys orders and tortures Valencio for information on Lennox.

Based on information gathered from the mission, Team Bravo has proceeded to a dockyard, cleared the area and linked up with Alpha Team. Alpha Team, however, is destroyed in an ambush while Lennox escapes. As a result, the operation is cancelled as too risky. MacCarver, however, dupes Kellar and Solomon into a continued pursuit of Lennox.

The team finds Lennox's location in an abandoned gulag. They must cross a suspension bridge littered with mines and defended by RPG and machine-gun-carrying guards. After successfully navigating the bridge, Kellar enters the gulag alone, while Solomon and MacCarver stay behind to secure the perimeter. After a surface battle, Kellar uncovers a bunker system beneath the prison. A long battle with Lennox's elite bodyguards ensues, ending with Lennox's apparent death.

The interrogator then reveals to Kellar that authorities had, in fact, always known of Lennox's involvement in Seventh Wave. Kellar had acted predictably, doing what his profile said he would, and his pursuit of Lennox was both expected and welcome. Kellar is told that a false "death" has been arranged for him, providing cover so he can continue his pursuit. The game ends with Kellar being told to get ready for his next assignment.

Weapons

Black features a wide range of real world weaponry, with great emphasis placed on their performance and detail. However, all weapons do similar or same damage to enemies, although effective range varies among weapon classes. Players can only carry two weapons at a time; therefore, strategy is needed when choosing weaponry. Most weapons, specifically rifles and sub-machine guns, can have their firing rates changed (like their respective real world counterparts) and most weapons can be equipped with silencers. Grenades can be blown up by shooting them.

Pistols

• DC3 Elite
• Glock (GLOCK 19)
• Magnum (Taurus Raging Bull)

Submachine Guns

• FN P90
• MAC-10
• IMI Uzi
• HK MP5

Rifles

• AK-47
• HK G36C
• M16A2
• M16A2 with attached M203 Grenade launcher (Silver Weapon: Unlocked after completing the game on Hard difficulty)

Special

• Walther WA2000 (Non-Bullpup configuration)
• RPG (RPG-7)
• M249 SAW
• Remington 870
• SPAS-12 (pump action only)
• M203 Stand-alone launcher

Soundtrack

The music for Black was composed by Chris Tilton, using a theme co-authored with Oscar-nominated composer Michael Giacchino. It was recorded at the Newman Scoring Stage using some of Hollywood's finest musicians. A soundtrack album was released on iTunes by Nettwerk Records.

Reception & awards

The game gathered a lot of hype from the video game community while in production, and since its release has received good reviews from critics, who generally praise the game for its explosive action and cutting edge graphics, but criticize its lack of depth.

The PS2 version scores 80% on Game Rankings based on 72 reviews, the Xbox version scores 77% based on 70 reviews. Metacritic reviews give it a 79%.

Awards

• Received IGN's awards for:
• Best PlayStation 2 First-Person Shooter of 2006
• Best Graphics Technology on PlayStation 2 in 2006
• Best Use of Sound on PlayStation 2 in 2006

References

External links

• Official website
• Official Criterion Games website
• Metacritic Review (Xbox)
• Metacritic Review (PS2)
• GT Video Review
• IGN Review
• EA shocked as Black for Xbox leaks to the internet
• Black videos at GameTrailers