| Question | Answeowr |
| what produces color? | color is produce by the frequency of light emitted or reflected by things. |
| what does the perception of color depend on? | the eye brain system |
| how did newton first show that sunlight is composed of a mixture of all the colors of the rainbow? | He passed a narrow beam of light through
a prism which caused the white light to
separate into the colors of the rainbow. |
| list the order of colors in the color spectrum(low to high) | Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet,(in
order from low frequency to high frequency |
| Strictly speaking, are
black and white real
colors in the sense
that red and green are? | Black and white are not real colors ...White
is a combination of all colors and black is
the absence of color |
| What determines the
color of the objects
around us? | Color of most objects around us is due to
the way the colors reflect light. |
| 7. What happens to light
when it strikes
a) transparent
materials?
b) opaque
materials? | For transparent materials, light that is
not absorbed is reemitted and passes
through the material.
b) for opaque, reemitted light is reflected
(passes back into the medium from which
it came.) |
| Which frequencies do
a) white objects
reflect?
b) black objects
reflect? | White objects reflects all frequencies.
b) black objects reflects none |
| When would we see an
object as “red”? | We see an object as red when it reflects red
light. |
| Name three
common light
sources and discuss
their range of
frequencies | a) candlelight – low in the higher
frequencies (blue/violet) so it is yellowish.
b) incandescent – emits all visible
frequencies but is richer in lower
frequencies (red)
c) fluorescent is richer in higher
frequencies (blue/violet) |
| What does the color
of a transparent
object depend on? | Color of a transparent object depends on
the color of light it transmits. |
| Why is blue glass
“blue”? | Blue glass is blue because it absorbs all
frequencies except blue. Blue light is
transmitted through the glass |
| When red light
shines on a red rose,
why do the leaves
become warmer
than the petals? | The petals reflect the red light and the
green leaves absorb the red light causing
the leaves to become warmer. (light energy
is changed to heat energy in the leaves) |
| When green light
shines on a red rose,
why do the petals
look black? | The petals reflect only red light, they will
absorb green light. If green light is
shining, there is no color to reflect and the
petals will look black. |
| Describe white light
from the sun. | White light is a composite (total) of all the
visible frequencies. |
| What do we learn
from analyzing the
“radiation curve” of
sunlight? | Brightness of frequencies from the sun is
uneven. Red and violet not as bright as the
middle-range of frequencies (the yellowgreen region). |
| What is the result of
mixing light of all the
visible frequencies? | white |
| What is the result of
mixing red, green, and
blue light? | white |
| What happens when
the following color
lights overlap: ed and blue
b) red and green
c) green and blue | a) magenta
b) yellow
c) cyan |
| How do televisions
make use of additive
primary colors? | Red, blue and green dots are lit in different
combinations to produce all the different
colors and white. |
| What are the
complementary colors
for a) magenta
b) cyan | a) green
b) red |
| What is the result if
you begin with white
light and subtract some
specific color from it? | you get the complementary color |
| What color will
white light minus blue
light appear | white- blue= yellow |
| How do paints and
dyes produce their
colors? | They contain pigments that absorb light of
certain range of frequencies and reflect
light of other ranges of frequencies.
(Pigments reflect a mixture of colors) |
| What are the three
primary paint colors?
(Hint: Remember
finger paints!) | red yellow and blue |
| What are the three
most useful colors for
mixing by subtraction? | magenta yellow and cyan |
| Do tiny particles in
the air scatter high or
low frequencies of
light | High (blue/violet) |
| What frequencies do
large particles scatter | low(red) |
| why is the sky blue? | The sky is blue because the tiny particles
in the upper atmosphere (nitrogen and
oxygen) scatter (reemit in all directions)
the high frequencies (blue/violet). Our
eyes are more sensitive to blue so we see
the sky as blu |
| why does the sky sometimes look whitish? | The sky looks whitish because there are
large particles (dust, water vapor) which
scatter more of the frequencies of light.
When all the frequencies are scattered, it
makes white |
| Why would the
“sky” on the moon
appear black? | There are no molecules in the atmosphere
of the moon to scatter the light so the sky
is black |
| Why are clouds
white? | Different sizes of water droplets cause all
different frequencies to be scattered and all
frequencies = white. |
| why are sunsets red? | Different sizes of water droplets cause all
different frequencies to be scattered and all
frequencies = white. |
| . Why is water
greenish blue? | Water molecules absorb red and reflect
cyan. |
| Does the red light
from glowing neon gas
have only one
frequency or a mixture
of frequencies? | Mixture of frequencies that are specific to
neon. Neon has its own “fingerprint” of
frequencies. |
| Why might atomic
spectra be considered
the “fingerprints” of
atoms | Light from each different element
produces its own characteristic pattern of
lines. |
