Light and Color

If you have ever half submerged a straight stick into water, you have probably noticed that the stick appears bent at the point it enters the water. This optical effect is due to refraction. As light passes from air to water, it changes speed, and bends.

A prism can be used to break light up or refract light into the primary colors (red, yellow and blue). Light changes speed as it moves from one medium to another (for example, from air into the glass of the prism).

 Why is a leaf green?

The color of an object depends on what happens as light hits it. Objects absorb some colors and reflect others. The colors you see are the colors reflected by the object. A green leaf absorbs all colors except green. It reflects green, so green is the color you see.

Facts:

        The speed of light is about 670 million miles per hour.

        Light changes speed as it moves from one medium to another.

        The colors you see are the colors reflected by the object.

        the primary colors of light are red, yellow and blue. 

Primary Colors are: Red, Yellow and Blue.

Mixing two primary colors together makes secondary colors. 

The secondary colors are: Green Orange and Violet.

Experiment mixing colors on the Color Mixing Machine.

RED + YELLOW = ORANGE

RED + BLUE = Violet

BLUE + YELLOW = GREEN

How to make the color wheel spin white:

Color each section with one of the seven colors of the rainbow. Make sure the colors are in the order in which they appear in the rainbow (violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red).

Spin the wheel, and watch what happens. If you color your wheel properly, the seven colors will blend and the whole wheel will appear to be white.