[mosqutip]

The reactions stop at 56 because Iron has the highest binding energy of any element, which the author doesn't mention. Even under the extreme conditions of stellar nuclear fusion, the binding energy cannot be overcome past this point.

However, this doesn't really explain the abundance of red paint. It explains the abundance of iron and lighter elements. The fact that Iron Oxide has a red color has nothing to do with the "physics of dying stars".

[svachalek]

The argument goes: Because iron oxide is abundant, it's cheap. Because it's cheap, it's used to paint barns.

There are a lot of arguments in the comments below but many of them actually support the statement. E.G. farmers used cow's blood or rust because they mixed their own paint. In other words, red was the most common and readily available pigment.

Arguments about modern storebought paint having the same price for all colors are also besides the point. (a) The tradition was well established before the 20th century and all prices being equal gives little incentive to change it. (b) Do they still make red paint from rust? (c) Do you really believe the paints all cost the manufacturer exactly the same?

That said, I don't really know anything about the history of red barns. I'm just saying as presented, it's a stronger case than many are giving it credit for.

[danso]

But...why aren't most homes painted red, inside and out? Homes have existed for as long as barns. And while many people might want to splurge more for their home, it seems we should still see a relatively high number of red paint schemes in cheaper homes

[DanBC]

Because homes are built out of different materials. Stone houses get whitewashed. White wash is a very thin plaster - lime, salt, water, sometimes molasses.

One Indian town - Jaipur - has pink houses. This is because of the local stone, and because they painted everything pink when Prince Albert went to visit. It's pink! (http://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-ex...)

(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jaipur_city_palace_in...)

[dragonwriter]

> But...why aren't most homes painted red, inside and out? Homes have existed for as long as barns. And while many people might want to splurge more for their home, it seems we should still see a relatively high number of red paint schemes in cheaper homes

There are psychological impacts of color schemes which make heavy use of it undesirable for dwellings (its also why it is frequently used in fast food restaurants, because its gets people out the door faster.)

[anigbrowl]

That seems too pat an explanation; I've sen a lot of very nice red rooms, and in other cultures it has more positive associations than in the Anglosphere. Also, how you react to color depends on the saturation as well as the hue.

In any case, this doesn't answer the question of why more people don't (or historically didn't) paint the outside of their houses red.

[randomdata]

Perhaps because houses are often made of materials that are not wood? Stone and brick homes are almost never painted, thus setting a theme for homes that deviates from red. Houses are also rather small in comparison to barns. It could just be a matter of being able to afford other options at the smaller scale.

[nikatwork]

>its also why it is frequently used in fast food restaurants, because its gets people out the door faster

In design courses I was always taught that red and yellow are psychologically associated with hunger/food and this is why most fast food branding uses them [1]. I haven't seen any actual science behind this, it's always presented as fact.

I have personally encountered the color black being linked to death/unluckiness in Asia, as a new franchise of a major eCommerce company insisted I make their website's background white, instead of black like every other country's.

[1] http://www.colorschemer.com/blog/2007/07/17/why-food-compani...

[wisty]

> I have personally encountered the color black being linked to death/unluckiness in Asia, as a new franchise of a major eCommerce company insisted I make their website's background white, instead of black like every other country's.

Funnily enough, in Asia white is also linked to death or morning. Thus the ban on white t-shirts in some parts of China this month.

[vacri]

In my country, all the barn are the colour of iron - galvanised iron. I don't think I've ever seen a red one. Ye Olde wooden barns aren't red here either - if a barn is painted, it's usually white.

[Daniel_Newby]

> The reactions stop at 56 because Iron has the highest binding energy of any element ...

Not exactly. Nickel-56 is produced in great abundance by the nuclear fusion of silicon. It then decays rapidly to cobalt-56, which then decays quickly to iron-56. The element with the highest binding energy is nickel-62, but it is not as easily formed during a supernova explosion.