Colour Flashcards
List the colours in the visible light spectrum
Red orange yellow green blue indigo violet
Where does visible light come from and how do we see it
Light from the sun or a lamp is called visible light and contains all the colours of the visible spectrum. When these colours reach our eyes we interpret this as seeing white
What is differential absorption ie. why do objects appear different colours in white light
Objects absorb some colours and transmit others. White objects appear white because they reflect all colours. Black objects absorb all colours so no light is reflected
What do filters do ie. how do they effect the transmission of light
When white light passes through a coloured filter all colours are absorbed except for the colour of the filter
e.g. a red filter transmits red light because absorbs all the other colours
How do objects of different colour appear in different colours of light
In certain lights and object will appear to be black this is because all the colours in the lights have been absorbed and no light has been reflected so our eyes black
How can it be proven that white light is not a colour itself but is simply a mixture of all the colours?
Newton believed that all colours he saw were in the sunlight shining into his room . To test this,he placed a second prism of the same type in the path of the light it showed that white light rather than being pure was composed of the spectrum of colours
