Cyan
— Spectral coordinates —
Wavelength		490–520 nm
Frequency		610–575 THz
— Common connotations —
water[1][2][3]
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#00FFFF
sRGBB	(r, g, b)	(0, 255, 255)
Source		CSS Color Module Level 3
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

In this 1889 dictionary, cyan-blue is defined as the blue-green color corresponding to wavelengths from 487 to 505 nm, corresponding to what is today called cyan.

Cyan ( /ˈsaɪ.ən/^[4] or /ˈsaɪ.æn/;^[5] from Greek: κύανoς, transliterated: kýanos, meaning "dark blue substance")^[6] may be used as the name of any of a number of colors in the blue/green range of the spectrum. In reference to the visible spectrum cyan is used to refer to the color obtained by mixing equal amounts of green and blue light or the removal of red from white light. As such, cyan is the complement of red in RGB and CMYK color models: cyan pigments absorb red light.

Cyan is also called aqua or blue-green, and was formerly known as "cyan blue".^[7]

The first recorded use of cyan blue (as noted above, "cyan blue" was the name used for the color "cyan" in the 19th century) as a color name in English was in 1879.^[8]

Some tones of color close to cyan in the cyan color range are teal, turquoise, electric blue and aquamarine.

Electric cyan vs. process cyan[link]

Electric cyan (web color aqua)[link]

Cyan (additive secondary)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#00FFFF
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(0, 255, 255)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(180°, 100%, 100%)
Source		X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The vivid cyan that is seen on an electronic display device (shown at right) is also referred to as electric cyan to distinguish it from the less vivid turquoise blue-like process cyan used in CMYK color printing (shown below). (Note: while the color is defined by definite RGB values, the display of the color will vary depending on the absolute color space used and the nature of the physical display device, e.g. computer monitor, and if this page is printed it is likely that the color shown will be far from representative.)

The web color aqua is an alias for electric cyan, that is, it is exactly the same color shown here as electric cyan.

To reproduce electric cyan in inks, it is necessary to add some white ink to the printer's cyan below, so when it is reproduced in printing, it is not a primary subtractive color. It is called aqua (a name in use since 1598) because it is a color commonly associated with water, such as the appearance of the water at a tropical beach.^[9]

Process cyan (pigment cyan) (printer's cyan)[link]

Cyan (subtractive primary)
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#00B7EB
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(0, 183, 235)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(193°, 100%, 92[10]%)
Source		CMYK[11]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Cyan is also one of the common inks used in four-color printing, along with magenta, yellow, and black; this set of colors is referred to as CMYK as in spectrum(s).

While both the additive secondary and the subtractive primary are called cyan, they can be substantially different from one another. Cyan printing ink can be more saturated or less saturated than the RGB secondary cyan, depending on what RGB color space and ink are considered.

Process cyan is not an RGB color, and there is no fixed conversion from CMYK primaries to RGB. Different formulations are used for printer's ink, so there can be variations in the printed color that is pure cyan ink. A typical formulation of process cyan is shown in the color box at right.

Variations of cyan[link]

It has been suggested that Robin egg blue be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since October 2011.

Light cyan[link]

Light Cyan
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#E0FFFF
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(224, 255, 255)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(180°, 97%, 97%)
Source		X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

At right is displayed the web color light cyan.

Celeste[link]

Celeste
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#B2FFFF
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(178, 255, 255)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(180°, 30%, 100%)
Source		S.Fantetti e C.Petracchi (2001). Il dizionario dei colori: nomi e valori in quadricromia. Zanichelli . ISBN 88-08-07995-3.
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

At right is displayed the web color Celeste.

Light sea green[link]

Light sea green
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#20B2AA
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(32, 178, 170)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(175°, 40%, 75%)
Source		X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

At right is displayed the web color light sea green.

Dark cyan[link]

Dark cyan
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#008B8B
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(0, 139, 139)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(180°, 24%, 100%)
Source		X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

At right is displayed the web color dark cyan.

Teal[link]

Teal
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#008080
sRGBB	(r, g, b)	(0, 128, 128)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(180°, 100%, 50[12]%)
Source		HTML/CSS[13]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

At right is displayed the web color teal.

In nature[link]

[edit] Molecules

• Pure water is nearly colorless. However, it does absorb slightly more red light than blue, giving large volumes of water a bluish tint; increased scattering of blue light due to fine particles in the water shifts the blue color toward green, for a typically cyan net color.^[14]
• Cyanide derives its name from Prussian blue, a blue pigment containing the cyanide ion.

[edit] Bacteria

• Cyanobacteria (sometimes called blue-green algae) are an important link in the food chain.

In human culture[link]

[edit] Architecture

• Cyan colored tiles are often used to pave swimming pools to make the water within them seem more intensely colored, and therefore more inviting.

[edit] Astronomy

• The planet Uranus is colored cyan because of the abundance of methane in its atmosphere.

[edit] Computers

• CyanogenMod alternative firmware for the operating system Android.

[edit] Energy

• Natural gas (methane), used by many for home cooking on gas stoves, has a cyan colored flame when burned.

[edit] Film

• Cinecolor, a bi-pack color process, the photographer would load a standard camera with two films, one orthochromatic, dyed red, and a panchromatic strip behind it. Color light would expose the cyan record on the ortho stock, which also acted as a filter, exposing only red light to the panchromatic film stock.

[edit] Medicine

• Cyanosis is an abnormal blueness of the skin, usually a sign of poor oxygen intake. i.e. the patient is "cyanotic".

[edit] Music

• Cyan, was a British progressive rock band from the 1980s and 1990s.
• Cyan is the signature color for the vocaloid, Hatsune Miku

[edit] Photography

• Cyanotype, or blueprint, a monochrome photographic printing process that predates the use of the word cyan as a color, yields a deep cyan-blue colored print based on the Prussian blue pigment.^[15]

[edit] Video games

• Cyan Garamonde is a named character in Final Fantasy VI.
• Cyan Worlds released the video game Myst for the Macintosh computer in 1993.
• Cyan Wisp is an alien-like creature from Sonic Colors. It also holds the attack of a move called Cyan Laser.
• Cyan colored wool can be obtained as an item in Minecraft

See also[link]

• List of colors
• Distinguishing blue from green in language
• Orange, formerly called "yellow-red" (compare with blue-green)

References[link]

1. ^ "Results for "cyan"". Dictionary.com. Lexico Publishing Corp.. 2007. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cyan. Retrieved 2007-11-22. 
2. ^ Oxford English Dictionary
3. ^ Khalifa, Rashad (trans). "Sura 76, The Human (Al-Insaan)". Quran The Final Testament. http://www.masjidtucson.org/quran/noframes/ch76.html#21. Retrieved 2007-11-30. 
4. ^ "cyan". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 3rd ed. 2001.
5. ^ Cyan definition on dictionary.com
6. ^ κύανος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
7. ^ J. Arthur H. Hatt (1908). The Colorist: Designed to Correct the Commonly Held Theory that Red, Yellow, and Blue are the Primary Colors and to Supply the Much Needed Easy Method of Determining Color Harmony. D. Van Nostrand Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=qFa_qP780RQC&pg=PA22&dq=%22cyan+blue%22+%22three+color+printing%22&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=pxItSKTOGaectAPy3OnvAg. 
8. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill page 194
9. ^ Maerz and Paul The Dictionary of Color 1930 (see under Aqua in Index, page 189)
10. ^ Using HSL color space#Conversion from RGB to HSL or HSV, v=247/255
11. ^ Tintbooks - Get Accurate CMYK Color Results For Your Printing Projects CMYK color tintbook:
12. ^ Web.forret.com, Color Conversion Tool set to hex code of color #008080 (Teal):
13. ^ W3.org, W3C TR CSS3 Color Module, HTML4 color keywords
14. ^ Craig F. Bohren (2001). Clouds in a Glass of Beer: Simple Experiments in Atmospheric Physics. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-41738-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=CZuNCZqtZZUC&pg=PA156&dq=absorption+scattering+water+blue+red&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=a684ScHhGI3WlQTM-_W7Bg. 
15. ^ Mike Ware (1999). Cyanotype: the history, science and art of photographic printing in Prussian blue. NMSI Trading Ltd. ISBN 1-900747-07-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=C-7I69gFIbMC&pg=PA21&ots=alsMw9t0Kr&dq=cyanotype+prussian-blue+color&sig=s12O6C39teka_vg41EDxbflKMI4#PPA40,M1. 

Philippe Petit
Petit at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009
Born	(1949-08-13) 13 August 1949 (age 62) Nemours, Seine-et-Marne, France
Occupation	High-wire artist

Philippe Petit (French pronunciation: [filip pəti]; born 13 August 1949) is a French high-wire artist who gained fame for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, on 7 August 1974.^[1] For his feat (that he referred to as "le coup"^[2]), he used a 450-pound (200-kilogram) cable and a custom-made 26-foot (8-metre) long, 55-pound (25-kilogram) balancing pole.

Early life[link]

Petit was born in Nemours, Seine-et-Marne, France; his father, Edmond Petit, was an author and a former Army pilot. At an early age he discovered magic and juggling. At 16, he took his first steps on the wire. Petit learned everything by himself as he was being expelled from five different schools. "Within one year," he told a reporter, "I taught myself to do all the things you could do on a wire. I learned the backward somersault, the front somersault, the unicycle, the bicycle, the chair on the wire, jumping through hoops. But I thought, 'What is the big deal here? It looks almost ugly.' So I started to discard those tricks and to reinvent my art."^[3] He also became adept at equestrianism, fencing, carpentry, rock-climbing and the art of bullfighting. Spurning circuses and their formulaic performances, on the sidewalks of Paris he created his street persona. In the early 1970s, he frequently juggled and worked on a slack rope in New York City's Washington Square Park.

Beginning in the 1970s, Petit began eyeing world-famous structures as stages for high-wire walks, which he executed as a combination of circus act and public performance. He performed his first such walk between the towers of the Notre Dame de Paris. In 1973, he walked a wire rigged between the two north pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in Sydney, Australia.^[4]

World Trade Center walk[link]

Petit's most famous work was his performance which he executed at the World Trade Center (Twin Towers) in Manhattan.

Planning[link]

He was first inspired to attempt what he called his "coup" on the Twin Towers while he sat in his dentist's office in Paris in 1968. In a magazine, he came upon an article about the yet-to-be constructed buildings, along with an illustration of the model. He became obsessed with the towers, collecting articles on them whenever possible.

The "artistic crime of the century" took six years of planning, during which Petit learned everything he could about the buildings, taking into account such problems as the swaying of the towers because of wind, and how to rig the steel cable across the 200 ft (61 m) gap between the towers (at a height of 1,368 ft (417 m)). He traveled to New York on several occasions to make first-hand observations. Since the towers were still under construction, Petit and New York-based photographer Jim Moore went up in a helicopter to make aerial photographs of the trade center.^[2] His friend Francis Brunn, the German juggler, provided financial support for the attempt and its planning.^[5]

Petit snuck into the towers several times, hiding on the roof and other areas in the unfinished towers, in order to get a sense of what type of security measures were in place. Using his own observations and Moore's photographs, Petit was able to make a scale model of the towers to help him design the rigging he needed to prepare for the wirewalk. He made fake identification cards for himself and his collaborators (claiming that they were contractors who were installing an electrified fence on the roof) to gain access to the towers. Prior to this, to make it easier to get into the buildings, Petit carefully observed the clothes worn by construction workers and the kinds of tools they carried. He also took note of the clothing of office workers so that he could blend in with them when he tried to enter the buildings. He observed what time the workers arrived and left, so he could determine when he would have roof access. As the target date of his "coup" approached, he claimed to be a journalist with a French architecture magazine so that he could gain permission to interview the workers on the roof. The Port Authority allowed Petit to conduct the interviews, which he used as a pretext to make more observations. He was once caught by a police officer on the roof, and his hopes to do the high-wire walk were dampened, but he eventually regained the confidence to proceed.

On the night of Tuesday, 6 August 1974, Petit and his crew were able to ride in a freight elevator to the 104th floor with their equipment, and to store this equipment just nineteen steps from the roof. In order to pass the cable across the void, Petit and his crew had settled on using a bow and arrow. They first shot across a fishing line, and then passed larger and larger ropes across the space between the towers until they were able to pass the 450-pound steel cable across. Two cavalettis (guy lines) anchored to other points on the roof were used to stabilize the cable and keep the swaying of the wire to a minimum.^[2]

Walking[link]

On Wednesday, 7 August 1974, shortly after 7:15 a.m., Petit stepped off the South Tower and onto his 3/4" 6×19 IWRC (independent wire rope core^[6]) steel cable. He walked the wire for 45 minutes, making eight crossings between the towers, a quarter of a mile above the sidewalks of Manhattan. In addition to walking, he sat on the wire, gave knee salutes and, while lying on the wire, spoke with a gull circling above his head.

As soon as Petit was observed by witnesses on the ground, the Port Authority Police Department dispatched officers to take him into custody. One of the officers, Sgt. Charles Daniels, later reported his experience:

I observed the tightrope 'dancer'—because you couldn't call him a 'walker'—approximately halfway between the two towers. And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire....And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle....He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again....Unbelievable really....Everybody was spellbound in the watching of it.^[7]

Petit was warned by his friend on the South Tower that a police helicopter would come to pick him off the wire unless he got off. Rain had begun to fall, and Petit decided he had taken enough risks, so he decided to give himself up to the police waiting for him on the South Tower. He was arrested once he stepped off the wire. Provoked by his taunting behaviour while on the wire, police handcuffed him behind his back and roughly pushed him down a flight of stairs. This he later described as the most dangerous part of the stunt.^[8]

His high-wire performance made headlines around the world. When asked why he did the stunt, Petit would say, "When I see three oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk."

Although movie cameras were on the roof during the walk, the person who was supposed to film the walk did not do so, apparently due to exhaustion from pulling the heavy cable tight after some of it had fallen, creating slack while the rigging was being set up.^[9]

Aftermath[link]

The extensive news coverage and public appreciation of Petit's high-wire walk resulted in all formal charges relating to his walk being dropped^[10] in exchange for what was supposed to be a free show of juggling for a few children in Central Park. Instead, he transformed it into another high-wire walk, in the Park above Belvedere Lake (which has now become Turtle Pond). Petit was also presented with a lifetime pass to the Twin Towers' Observation Deck by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He autographed a steel beam close to the point where he began his walk.

Petit's high-wire walk is credited with bringing the then rather unpopular Twin Towers much needed attention and even affection.^[11][12] Up to that point, critics such as historian Lewis Mumford had regarded them as ugly and utilitarian. The landlords were having trouble renting out all of their office space.^[11]

Sandi Sissel filmed the original act and released it as the cinema verité documentary, High Wire (1984), with music derived from Philip Glass's Glassworks.

The documentary film Man on Wire by UK director James Marsh, about Petit's 1974 WTC performance, won both the World Cinema Jury and Audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival 2008. The film also won awards at the 2008 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina, and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Petit was on stage to help accept the award, making a coin vanish in his hands while thanking the Academy "for believing in magic" and then balanced the Oscar by its head on his chin to cheers from the audience.^[13]

Later life[link]

Petit has made dozens of public high-wire performances in his career; in 1986 he re-enacted the crossing of the Niagara River by Blondin for an Imax film. In 1989, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, mayor Jacques Chirac invited him to walk a wire strung from the ground, at the Place du Trocadéro, to the second level of the Eiffel Tower.

Petit briefly headlined with the Ringling Brothers' Circus, but circus life did not agree with him. It was during his stint with the circus that he suffered his only fall, from 45 feet (14 m) during a practice walk, breaking several ribs. He says he has never fallen during a performance. "If I had, I wouldn't be here."^[14]

Petit regularly gives lectures and workshops internationally on a variety of topics and subjects. He single-handedly built a barn in the Catskill Mountains using the methods and tools of the 18th-century timber framers;^{[citation needed]} and currently,^[when?] he is working on his eighth book, A Square Peg.

Among his friends who have associated themselves with some of his projects are such diverse artists as: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Werner Herzog, Annie Leibovitz, Milos Forman, Volker Schlöndorff, Twyla Tharp, Peter Beard, Marcel Marceau, Paul Auster, Paul Winter, Debra Winger, Robin Williams and Sting.^{[citation needed]} Director James Signorelli assisted with the creation of the book To Reach the Clouds.^[15]

Petit has been presented with the James Park Morton Interfaith Award, the Streb Action Maverick Award, The Byrdcliff Award, is the recipient of the New York Historical Society Award and was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. Petit shares his time between New York City where he is an artist in residence at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and a hideaway in the Catskills.

Major high-wire performances[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Philippe Petit, Trois Coups, (Paris: Herscher, 1983). ISBN 2-7335-0062-7
• Philippe Petit, Two towers, I walk, (New York: Reader's Digest, 1975), ASIN B00072LQRM.
• Philippe Petit, On The High Wire, Preface by Marcel Marceau, Postface by Werner Herzog (New York: Random House, 1985). ISBN 0-394-71573-X.
• Philippe Petit, Funambule, (Paris: Albin Michel, 1991) ISBN 978-2-226-04123-4
• Philippe Petit, Traité du funambulisme, Preface by Paul Auster, (Arles: Actus Sud, 1997), ISBN 2-226-04123-0, (in French / en français).
• Philippe Petit, Über Mir Der Offene Himmel, (Stuttgart: Urachhaus, 1998) ISBN 978-3-8251-7209-1
• Philippe Petit, Trattato di Funambolismo, (Milano: Ponte Alle Grazie, 1999) ISBN 88-7928-450-9
• Philippe Petit, To Reach The Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between The Twin Towers, (New York, North Point Press, 2002). ASIN B000UDX0JA, ISBN 0-86547-651-9
• Philippe Petit, L'Art du Pickpocket, (Arles: Actes Sud, 2006) ISBN 2-7427-6106-3
• Philippe Petit, Alcanzar las nubes, (Alpha Decay, Barcelona, 2007) ISBN 978-84-934868-9-1
• Philippe Petit, Man on Wire, (Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2008) ISBN 978-1-60239-332-5

Filmography[link]

Tribute[link]

• The song "Man On Wire" by the band '27' is a tribute to Philippe Petit.^[18]
• The song "Sleepwalking" by Danish composer Ste van Holm is a tribute to the World Trade Center walk.^[19]
• The Low Anthem's song "Boeing 737", from their 2011 album Smart Flesh contains a reference to Petit's World Trade Center walk.^[20]
• American rock band Incubus used a photo of Petit as the cover art for their 2011 release If Not Now, When?
• Colum McCann's National Book Award-winning novel Let the Great World Spin has Petit's Twin Towers walk as its starting point and its centrepiece.
• "Funambulist" by American metal band Cormorant is about his walk between the Twin Towers^[21] .

References[link]

This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (May 2011)

Further reading[link]

• Mordicai Gerstein, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers (Roaring Brook Press, 2003) ISBN 978-0-7613-1791-3
• David Chelsea, 9-11: Artists Respond feature entitled "He Walks on Air 110 Stories High" (DC Comics, 2002) ISBN 978-1-56389-881-5
• Ralph Keyes, Chancing It: Why We Take Risks (Little, Brown & Company, 1985) ISBN 0-316-49132-2
• Angus K. Gillespie, Twin Towers: the Life of New York City's World Trade Center (Rutgers University Press, 1999) ISBN 978-0-8135-2742-0
• James Glanz and Eric Lipton, City in the Sky (New York: Times Book, 2003) ISBN 0-8050-7691-3
• Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (New York: Random House, 2009) ISBN 978-0-8129-7399-0

Articles and Interviews[link]

• Hager, Emily (12 August 2010). "Learning to Walk in the Slippers of a High-Wire Artist". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/nyregion/13petit.html. Retrieved 12 August 2010. 
• Green, Penelope (21 September 2006). "A High-Wire Master Touches Down". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/garden/21petit.html?pagewanted=1&sq. Retrieved 18 April 2008. 
• Higginbotham, Adam (19 January 2003). "On top of the world". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2003/jan/19/features.magazine7. 
• Lazarovic, Sarah (9 January 2002). "The Daredevil in the Clouds". The National Post. http://www.longliveirony.com/Petit.htm. 
• Tomkins, Calvin (5 April 1999). "Onward and Upward with the Arts, "The Man Who Walk on Air"". The New Yorker. http://wwww.newyorker.com/archive/1999/04/05/1999_04_05_080_TNY_LIBRY_000017914#ixzz12k4nlilD. 
• Mason, Anthony (3 February 2009). "The Great Feat Of Philippe Petit, CBS Evening News: Talking With The Man Who Walked The Twin Towers". CBS. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/03/eveningnews/main4773768.shtml. 
• Colbert, Stephen (27 January 2009). "Philippe Petit". Comedy Central. http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/217060/january-27-2009/philippe-petit. 
• Langston, Bonnie (24 April 2009). "Still Working the Wire". Daily Freeman. http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2009/04/24/life/doc49f1349e71724682655103.txt. 
• Tucker, Reed (13 April 2008). "The Man Who Walked Between the Twin Towers Stars in a New Documentary on his High-Wire Act". New York Post. http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/item_4JsbAPrBYjHJm2oBZfbjlN. 
• Heller, Sabine (10 May 2010). "Philippe Petit, Man On Wire: "I'm Afraid of Animals With Too Many Legs or No Legs at All"". Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sabine-heller/philippe-petit-man-on-wir_b_570720.html. 
• Grace, Lichtenstein (8 August 1974). "Stuntman, Eluding Guards, Walks a Tightrope Between Trade Center Towers". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/08/nyregion/08WTC.htm. 
• "Not My Job: Philippe Petit". NPR. 7 February 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100366857. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Philippe Petit

• MSA - The Man Who Walked Between The Towers. Co-produced by Michael Sporn Animation and Weston Woods Studios
• Philippe Petit Signature visible in the 1980s
• photos of Philippe Petit crossing the Twin Towers along with others