Color 1

Question 0

Light is a form of radiant energy. It consists of

Answer 0

short, rapid electromagnetic vibrations, or waves.

Question 1

All colors—whether seen in nature or applied by man with pigments through painting, dyeing, or printing—are caused by

Answer 1

light and the way light affects the eyes.

Question 2

The normal human eye usually recognizes six bands of colors in the spectrum:

Answer 2

—violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.

Question 3

The color of any object depends on two things:

Answer 3

(1) the kind of light that shines on the object, and
(2) the kind of light that bounces off or passes through the object.

Stated another way, color depends on which wavelengths reach the object and which wavelengths reach the eye after being reflected or transmitted by the object.

Question 4

When light shines on an opaque object—an object that light will not pass through, such as a card, a wall, or a plum—some wavelengths will be :

Answer 4

absorbed by the object and some will be reflected. The chemical makeup of the surface of the object—that is, the pigments it contains—determines which wavelengths (and hence which colors) are reflected and which are absorbed.

Question 5

A surface that reflects sunlight (which contains all colors) without absorbing any of its colors is said to be what color?

Answer 5

white. A surface that absorbs all colors, reflecting none, is said to be black.

Question 6

Weak vibrations of white light result in the sensation known as:

Answer 6

gray

Question 7

An opaque object that appears blue absorbs all colors but

Answer 7

blue; the blue light is reflected to the eye, giving the object its color. A “red” object reflects only red light, a “green” object reflects only green, and so on.

Question 8

Transparent objects do not reflect light, they

Answer 8

transmit it. Therefore the color of such an object depends on the color of the light that passes through it. Ordinary window glass transmits all colors and is said to have no color of its own. “Blue” glass transmits only blue light, absorbing all other colors.

Question 9

While sunlight contains all colors, artificial light does not. An object under an electric light does/ does not:

Answer 9

does not receive the same kind of color as it does in sunlight—and it may seem to be a different color.

Question 10

To take an extreme example, an apple that appears red in sunlight will look________ under green light.

Answer 10

black.
This is a light that contains no color but green. This is because the apple can reflect only red light; since none is present, the apple absorbs all the light it receives and appears black.

Question 11

Black, gray, and white are sometimes called neutral or

Answer 11

achromatic colors; the other colors—blue, green, red, etc—are called chromatic.