SOLUTIONS

1. Gaps in the video:

Purple is a (1)weird colour. The formal name for purple is magenta, and the weird thing about magenta is that you won't
ever see it in a rainbow; and the rainbow is supposed to be the full spectrum of colours. So why doesn't purple, why
doesn't magenta (2)appear in the rainbow? And the answer is to do with colour mixing. I've always had a problem with
colour mixing, because I know that you can't mix photons together. So you can't take a blue photon and a green photon
and mix them together to get some other photon. That just doesn't happen. And yet, you can mix paints together in art...
Color mixing is (3)definitely something you can do. So what's the answer?
Well actually, you can't mix colors together in physics, but you can do it in biology. It's to do with how your eyes work.
For example, if I shine red light and green light into your eyes at the same time, if I cross these over, you will see yellow.
So when you mix red and green (4)together, you get yellow. And if you look at the spectrum, yellow is in between red
and green. So maybe that's the rule for mixing colours together. You mix two colors together, you get the colour in
between on the colour spectrum. And we can test that again, so I'll look at green and blue together. So if I mix green and
blue together, I get cyan; and cyan is in between blue and green on the spectrum. So that's great, you mix two colours
together, you get the colour in between. But why, why is that? Well, your eyes can't (5)measure the wavelength of light
directly. So it's not like a photon comes in, and you know, it's 200 nanometers or whatever, and it detects that. Instead,
you have these cone cells at the back of your eyes that are sensitive to different parts of the spectrum. So when red light
comes into your eyes, there's a set of cones that fire and tell your brain you're looking at something red. So we'd call
those the red cones. There's another (6)set of cones that are more sensitive to green, so when there's green light going
into your eyes, they fire and they send a message to your brain. And there's blue cones, as well. So you've got red cones,
green cones, and blue cones. So what about yellow? What about when you're looking at yellow light, like that? Well in
that situation, you don't have a yellow cone. So what do you do? Well, yellow is (7)quite close to red, so your red cone
fires a bit. And yellow is quite close to green as well, so your green cone fires a bit. So your brain is getting a message
from your red cone and your green cone at the same time, and it's deciding, OK well, I must be looking at something in
between those two colours, then. And that's brilliant, because your brain is perceiving something about the world that it
isn't able to measure directly. It isn't directly sensitive to yellow light. It does mean that you can be tricked. And so if I
make red light and green light go into your eyes, but no yellow light, you will see yellow. Anyway. So, go red (8)torch and
a green (8)torch, and there's no yellow light, here. But when I combine them, you will see yellow, anyway. And TVs do
this all the time. So if you look up close at TV, you'll see the individual pixels. And there are red pixels, green pixels, and
blue pixels. Those are the only colours being produced by your TV. And yet, they can produce all the other colors with
this trick of colour mixing. So what about purple? What about magenta? Well, what (9)should your brain do if your red
cone fires at one end of the spectrum and your blue cone fires at the other end of the spectrum, but your green cone
doesn't fire? Does it do the same trick? Does is think I must be looking at colour in between red and blue? When the
colour between red and blue is green, and you're definitely not looking at something green, because your green cone
isn't (10)firing. So in that situation, your brain invents a colour. It makes up a color, and that colour, is magenta. And I
can show you that with my red and blue torches. So when they're combined together there, you see magenta--
absolutely beautiful. And that's why you don't see magenta in the spectrum. You don't see magenta in the rainbow,
because it doesn't have a wavelength. It's just the absence of green, if you like. Just to show you the full palette of
colours that you can see on a TV screen-- so you get red and blue mixed together makes magenta. Green and red makes
yellow…

2. Answers for the questions

1. List the order of colors in the color spectrum. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet
2. Are black and white real colors, in the sense that red and green are? Explain. No, black is the absence of light and
white is a combination of all the colors of light.
3. What happens to light of a certain frequency that encounters atoms of the same resonant frequency? It is absorbed
4. What color(s) of light does a transparent red object transmit? What color(s) does it absorb? Red; Non-Red colors
5. What is the function of a pigment? Pigments absorb light of specific colors
6. Why are more and more fire engines being painted yellow green instead of red? The human eye is most sensitive to
yellow-green
7. How can yellow be produced on a screen if only red light and green light are available? Overlap the red and the
green
8. What is the name of the color produced by a mixture of green and blue light? Cyan
9. What colors of spots are lit on a television tube to give full color? Red, Green and Blue
10. What are complementary colors? Two colors that when added produce white
11. What color is the complement of blue? Yellow
12. The process of producing a color by mixing pigments is called color mixing by subtraction. Why do we say
“subtraction” instead of “addition” in this case? Pigments absorb or “subtract” colors from light
13. What colors of ink are used to print full-color pictures in books and magazines? Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, Black
14. What is light scattering? Redirection of light in multiple directions
15. Why is the sky blue? Molecules in the air scatter high-frequency light
16. Why is the sky sometimes whitish? Larger particles scatter low frequencies too
17. Why are clouds white? The mixture of droplet sizes scatters many frequencies
18. Why are sunsets red? Only low frequencies are not scattered on the long path through the atmosphere
19. What is the color of common tennis balls, and why? Yellow-green tennis balls are highly visible. Our eyes are most
sensitive to yellow-green.
20. Shine red light on a rose. Why will the temperature of the leaves increase more than the temperature of the red
petals? The temperature of the green leaves will increase more because they absorb the red light while the red
petals reflect the red light.
21. Why are the interiors of optical instruments painted black? The black paint absorbs errant light rays, resulting in a
better image.
22. ON a TV screen, red, green and blue spots of fluorescent materials are illuminated at a variety of relative intensities
to produce a full spectrum of colors. What dots are activated to produce yellow? Magenta? White? Yellow- red and
green; magenta- red and blue; white- red, blue, and green.
23. Suppose two beams of white light are shone on a white screen, one beam through a pane of red glass and the other
through a pane of green glass. What color appears on the screen where the two beams overlap? What occurs if
instead the two panes of glass are placed in the path of a single beam? Yellow; all the light is absorbed.
24. What color would a yellow cloth appear if illuminated with sunlight? With yellow light? With blue light? Yellow;
yellow; black
25. A spotlight is coated so that it won’t transmit blue from its white-hot filament. What color is the emerging beam of
light? When blue is subtracted from white light, the emerging color is the complementary color, yellow.
26. How could you use the spotlights at a play to make the yellow clothes of the performers suddenly change to black? If
the yellow clothes are illuminated with blue light, no color will be reflected and they will appear black.
27. A stage performer stands where beams of red and green light cross.
a. What is the color of her white shirt under this illumination? Yellow, the addition of red and green
b. What are the colors of the shadows she casts on the stage floor? Where both shadows overlap, black will
result, since no light appears there. But the part of the shadow from the green light source that is
illuminated with red will appear red. Similarly, the part of the shadow from the red light source that is
illuminated with green will appear green.
28. What colors of ink do color ink-jet printers use to produce the colors you see? Do the inks form colors by color
addiction or by color subtraction? Magenta, yellow, and cyan; subtraction.
29. On a photographic print, you dearest friend is seen wearing a red sweater. What color is the sweater on the
negative? The opposite of red, cyan.
30. Why can’t we see a laser beam going across the room unless there is fog, chalk dust, or a mist in the air? We see the
laser beam only when it scatters from fog, chalk dust, or some other particles in the air.
31. Very big particles, such as droplets of water, absorb more radiation than they scatter. How does this fact help to
explain why rain clouds appear dark? Rain clouds are composed of large light-absorbing droplets.