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Is a tennis ball green or yellow? The internet can't decide

Posted at 12:21 PM, Mar 21, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-21 14:46:19-04

You remember The Dress. You remember The Shoes. The questionable colors of those items sparked arguments and tested friendships around the world. 

Poor lighting and flash photography may have led to the confusing hues and shades in those memes. But now, the internet seems hopelessly divided over an intrinsic fact of one of the world's most ordinary items.

Is a tennis ball green? Or is it yellow?

The debate seems to have began when The Atlantic posed the question in a pice back in February, but the discussion really took off when legendary tennis player Roger Federer was posed the question by media members on Monday.

 

 

By the International Tennis Federation, Federer is technically correct. According to the ITF's official rules page, "the ball shall have a uniform outer surface and shall be white or yellow in colour." Even a check of a typical ball's pantone color code seems to imply that tennis balls are yellow.

 

 

Despite all the evidence, tennis ball truthers from continued to declare that tennis balls were green.

 

 

 

 

Even the tennis ball emoji (🎾) appears to be in denial, as it appears to contain more green than chartreuse or yellow.

What say you? Do you think tennis balls are green or yellow?

Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.