Looking at Colors!

and Colored LightLessons 11 & 12

Where does color come from?

All the colors are absorbed by the pigment in the paint except the colors that make blue.

The light bulb produces all the colors of white light.

Why does a Smurf appear blue?

Blue bounces off and hits your eyes.

Why does a Smurf appear black through a red filter?

Blue bounces off and is blocked by the red filter.

No colors make it to your eyes. (Black)

Lesson 11 Big Ideas: In order to get color you can take away

color from the spectrum. (All the colors combine to make white light. In order to get color you need to take some color out of the spectrum.)

If you take out all the colors of the spectrum you get black. (From a physics standpoint, black is the absence of color and is not a color at all.)

Lesson 11 Big Ideas (Cont.):Pigments, paint, ink, dyes, etc. all

absorb some of the colors of the spectrum. The colors of the spectrum that are reflected blend to create the colors we see with our eyes.

Another way to take color from the spectrum is to use filters. A red filter will only allow the warm colors (ROY) to go through and block the cool colors (GBIV).

Lesson 12 Big Ideas:The primary colors of pigment (also called subtractive colors)

are cyan, magenta and yellow.You can blend the three primary

pigment colors to make any color you have ever seen.

Adding all the subtractive colors makes black (no color).

Examples of pigment colors are ink cartridges, test prints, comics under the microscope, etc.

Lesson 12 Big Ideas:The primary colors of light (also called additive colors)

are red, green and blue.You can blend the three light pigment colors

to make any color you have ever seen.Adding all the additive colors makes white

(all colors combined).Examples of light colors are TVs, monitors,

custom colors of MS Office, photoreceptors in our eyes, Stoplights and Police Lights, older 3D glasses, etc.