• Question: why do colours appear as they do, as particles are not a particular colour?

    Asked by Emma to Adrian, Gaia, Jim, Scott, Vicky on 10 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Adrian Buzatu

      Adrian Buzatu answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      Colours of materials appear from what colours the materials absorb and what materials they reflect.

    • Photo: Scott Lawrie

      Scott Lawrie answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      Brilliant question, Emma! The science of colour is one of my favourites 😀

      Hopefully you know about the periodic table of elements? Well if you burn any element (or atom) in a flame, the flame would go a different colour. For example, lithium burns red, sodium yellow, copper green and potassium purple. This is because every element has a kind of ‘colour fingerprint’, and they’re all different! It’s all to do with the position of electrons orbiting the nucleus in the atoms.

      The light you see is a particle of light called a photon, and photons CAN actually be any colour – even ones you cannot see, like ultraviolet and x-rays!

      I’m very happy to answer any other question you have on this 😎

    • Photo: Gaia Andreoletti

      Gaia Andreoletti answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      Hi Emma,

      Objects don’t “have” color but they give off light that “appears” to be a color.

      Colour is determined by the light frequency and then by how those frequencies are combined or mixed when they reach they eye. Light falls on specialized receptor cells at the back of the eye and a signal is sent to the brain along a pathway. This signal is processed by the part of the brain near the back of the skull.

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