You can easily experiment with this. Hold some coloured cellophane in front of your eyes and have a look around. Notice how some colours are changed and others look similar. Figure out which colours are being absorbed. It sometimes takes a long time for new scientific knowledge to become widespread.
For example, many people used to think that dogs could only see in black and white. It is now known that dogs have two kinds of colour receptors that allow them to see yellows and purples. Even though the initial experiment was done in , many people are still unaware that dogs can see some colours. Ever wonder why fluorescent colours look so bright? It is all due to energy, as explained in the article Light — colour and fluorescence. Experiment with mixing the primary colours of lights and paints using these simulations on the Causes of color website.
Find out about how dogs do have some colour vision and how they see the world in this article from Live Science. Read this tutorial about Human perception, Spatial awareness and Illusions on Biology Online to learn about human perception. Add to collection. Nature of science It sometimes takes a long time for new scientific knowledge to become widespread. Related content Ever wonder why fluorescent colours look so bright?
Useful links Experiment with mixing the primary colours of lights and paints using these simulations on the Causes of color website. Go to full glossary Add 0 items to collection. Download 0 items. Twitter Pinterest Facebook Instagram. Email Us. In his spare time, Tibi likes to make weird music on his computer and groom felines. Home Other Did you know? What makes things coloured — the physics behind it Have you ever wondered where do colours come from?
May 10, Reading Time: 5 mins read. This way, when light hits matter one or more of the following phenomena happens: reflection and scattering. Most objects reflect light, but some are more reflective than others, like metals.
This is directly related to the number of free electrons that are able to pass from atom to atom with ease. Instead of absorbing energy from the light, the free electrons vibrate and the light energy is sent out of the material at the same frequency as the original light coming in.
The electrons thus absorb most of the incoming energy, with little or no reflection. If the incoming light energy is much lower or much higher than that required for the electrons comprising an object to vibrate, then the light source will pass through the material unchanged.
This way matter will look transparent to the human eye, such as in the case of glass. If the energy of the incoming light is the same as the vibration frequency of the electrons in the material, light is able to go deep into the material, and causes small vibrations in the electrons. The vibrations are then passed on from atom to atom, each vibrating at the same frequency as the incoming light source.
This makes the light inside the material look bent. Example: a straw in a glass of water. Light and matter. Get more science news like this Tags: colour light. You probably noticed that when it is dark, things get grayish and its hard to distinguish colors.
Another interesting conclusion - our eyes are only sensitive to a little part of spectrum, or in other words can see only a little part of all possible colors. Thats why we develop instruments, like different spectrometers to learn about those "balls" we can not see with our eyes. And, finally, summing up the story: colors are out interpretation on the ability of things surfaces to reflect the certain part of light. And different things have different colors as their light reflecting properties are different.
Color comes from the frequency of light that our eyes respond to. Objects either reflect or glow in the color that we see them, and absorb other colors or glow more strongly in one color than in another. This a is good question. As with many things in the physical world, we construct our reality from the world. Rather, color is subjective. For example, the reason you see something as red is because the light that reflects on your retina is a certain frequency that is visible to your retina.
There is also a dedicated region in your brain called V4, in the visual occipital cortex that determines the color you see. When certain unfortunate people have injuries to their brains, they have a rare abnormality called achromatopsia where they don't perceive color anymore as they used to prior to the brain trauma. There is also an interesting phenomenon called synesthesia where people experience tastes when they see certain colors or vice versa--colors when they taste certain foods.
All this is evidence that we, through our sensory organs and our brains, construct our subjective reality. I suggest you watch the film Matrix and think about this.
Color is actually specific energies of light waves which fall into the range of visible spectrum ranges between red and violet. We see objects as a specific color because of the color effect. For example when a blue object is hit with light rays the object reflects only blue light and absorbs all other light.
The why is a little harder to answer.
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