Colors of Light

Spectrum of Light
Colors Everywhere
Recap
Recap

B A B

B B
 is made up of wavelengths of
White Light light and each wavelength is a
particular color
RED ORANGE YELLOW GREEN

BLUE INDIGO VIOLET

ROYGBIV
• 300nm (red)- 700nm (violet) range of
wavelengths
• white light is also called visible light.
Have you ever heard someone claiming black or
white as his favorite color?

BLACK
not colors
WHITE
• Black because no light illuminates it
• White is the combination of all colors.
 is not a property of a matter but it
Color is the result of which wavelengths
are reflected to our eyes.

 Colors that don’t match the material’s

natural frequency will be reflected and this
is the color that appears to the observer.
 Green + Red = Yellow
Red + Blue = Magenta
Green + Blue = Cyan

Green + Red + Blue =

White Light (Additive)

Yellow + Magenta +
Cyan = Black
(Subtractive)
The primary secondary
colors of light colors: yellow,
are red, green, cyan, and
and blue magenta
But what are complementary colors?
 These are primary and secondary colors that result
in white light when added.
 For example, a green light (primary) + magenta
(Red+Blue) (secondary) = white light.

Did you ever know that stars are of different colors

and that they shine differently?
 blue stars are hotter than the stars that emit red,
orange, or yellow light
 the higher the temperature, the higher its radiant
energy, and the brighter it appears
 blue light of shorter wavelength is brighter than those
lights with longer wavelength
 color and intensity are then correlated to wavelength
and frequency

But why does the sun, a yellow star, appears brighter

to us than other stars?
The retina of our eyes contains rods and
cones which are called photoreceptors.
The rods only work at night or dark areas
while the cones which are responsible for
detecting colors work on bright lights.
the blue cones, red cones, and green cones.
But what happens when you stare at one color for too
long?

This will lead to fatigue of the color receptor

that detects that color.
The white screen minus the fatigued color
(red) produces the complementary color
(cyan).
Wavelength is the distance
between two identical
points.
Ex: 1 wavelength
B-F A-E
1 Wavelength = 1 complete
wave cycle
Frequency refers to how
often a wave cycle passes a
given point per second
A-E and E-I = 2 wave cycles
in a second (2/s)
 • waves created for a period
of 1 second.
• The blue wave with shorter
wavelength has 6 wave
cycles in a second
• while the red wave with
longer wavelength has 3
wave cycles in a second
wavelength and frequency are
inversely proportional
 Visible light is a small section of the
electromagnetic waves that is visible to the
human beings.
 The wavelengths longer than the red spectrum of
light like the infrared and that region shorter
than the wavelength of the violet spectrum like
the UV light are not visible to us but are visible
to other organisms because each organism has
its own visible range.
But why are they traveling
at the same speed?
 Any wavelength has its
corresponding frequency
and any wavelength
multiplied to its
corresponding frequency
will always give us the
speed of light.
How fast is the visible light moving?
 The speed of light was first calculated by a Danish
astronomer, named, Ole Roemer according to the
American Museum of Natural History.
 Today we are using the value of 299,792, 458 m/s, or
approximately 300,000,000 m/s which was adopted at
the General conference of weights and measures in
1983.
 This the constant speed of all the wavelengths of light
in a vacuum.
Thank you!
Mrs. Ivy G. Mendez
Grade 7 – Science Teacher