• Question: How did everything get it's colour?

    Asked by CoolJcookie48 to Stephen on 9 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Stephen Rhatigan

      Stephen Rhatigan answered on 9 Nov 2017:


      Light is made of waves of energy. If you draw a wavy line on a piece of paper, the distance between two high points which are beside each other on the line is called the wavelength.
      Shorter wavelength means a higher energy and a longer wavelength means a lower energy.
      We can only see certain wavelengths of light which are in the “visible range”.
      To understand the visible range think of a rainbow. In order of energy (lowest to highest): red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Red has the lowest energy and the longest wavelength, violet has the highest energy and the shortest wavelength.
      When light in the visible range enters our eye our brain translates the wavelength into a specific colour.
      So why do things have colour? A blue object reflects blue light and absorbs the other colours. A red object reflects red light and absorbs the others and so on.

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