Light and colour

Question 1

List the 7 colours of the spectrum in order from the lowest frequency to the highest frequency.

Answer 1

red
orange
yellow
green
blue
indigo
violet

Question 2

What is white light made up of?

Answer 2

White light is a mixture of the three primary colours, each with a different frequency.

Question 3

What are the three primary colours in light?

Answer 3

red
green
blue

Question 4

How are secondary colours made?

Answer 4

Primary colours of light add together to make white light, or secondary colours such as magenta, cyan and yellow.

Question 5

When light hits a surface, some of it is absorbed and some of it is reflected. What colour is reflected?

Answer 5

The light that is reflected is the colour of the object in that light.

For example, a blue object absorbs all the colours of the spectrum except blue: it reflects blue light.

Question 6

What colour do objects appear in white light?

Answer 6

BLACK

Objects appear black in white light because they absorb all colours and reflect none.

Question 7

What colour do objects appear in any light other than their own colour?

Answer 7

BLACK

Objects also appear black in any single colour of light if their colour is not the same as the light. For example, a green object appears black in any other light than green (or white which contains green) because there is no green light shining on it to reflect into your eyes.

Question 8

Light can be split into colours of the spectrum using a prism. This is called…

Answer 8

dispersion

Question 9

What is a spectrum?

Answer 9

A series of similar waves arranged in order of wavelength or frequency.