0.5 Colour  (Page 4/5)

The rods and cones have different response times to light. The cones react quickly when bright light falls on them. The rods take a longer time to react. This is why it takes a while (about 10 minutes) for your eyes to adjust when you enter a dark room after being outside on a sunny day.

Colours on a television screen

If you look very closely at a colour cathode-ray television screen or cathode-ray computer screen, you will see that there are very many small red, green and blue dots called phosphors on it. These dots are caused to fluoresce (glow brightly) when a beam of electrons from the cathode-ray tube behind the screen hits them. Since different combinations of the three primary colours of light can produce any other colour, only red, green and blue dots are needed to make pictures containing all the colours of the visible spectrum.

Colours of light

1. List the three primary colours of light.
2. What is the term for the phenomenon whereby white light is split up into its different colours by a prism?
3. What is meant by the term “complementary colour” of light?
4. When white light strikes a prism which colour of light is refracted the most and which is refracted the least? Explain your answer in terms of the speed of light in a medium.

Pigments and paints

We have learnt that white light is a combination of all the colours of the visible spectrum and that each colour of light is related to a different frequency. But what gives everyday objects around us their different colours?

Pigments are substances which give an object its colour by absorbing certain frequencies of light and reflecting other frequencies. For example, a red pigment absorbs all colours of light except red which it reflects. Paints and inks contain pigments which gives the paints and inks different colours.

Colour of opaque objects

Objects which you cannot see through (i.e. they are not transparent) are called opaque . Examples of some opaque objects are metals, wood and bricks. The colour of an opaque object is determined by the colours (therefore frequencies ) of light which it reflects . For example, when white light strikes a blue opaque object such as a ruler, the ruler will absorb all frequencies of light except blue, which will be reflected. The reflected blue light is the light which makes it into our eyes and therefore the object will appear blue.