• Question: Why do we see things different colours?

    Asked by Lucyyyy to Deborah, Euan, Maheen, Rob, Stu on 13 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Deborah Prunty

      Deborah Prunty answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      White light is made up of lots of different frequencies of light. We see each of these different frequencies as different colours. When light shines on an object it absorbs all the light that has the frequencies that it likes and reflects the rest. It’s this reflected light that we see.

    • Photo: Euan Allen

      Euan Allen answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Hi Lucyyyy,

      Fantastic question.

      White light is a blend of all the colours put together. When we see things with colour, what is happening is that the object is absorbing all of the colours apart from the one you see. This colour bounces off the object and enters your eye.

      For example if you look at a red apple on a sunny day, what’s happening is that the apple is absorbing the blue, green, yellow, purple and all the other colours of the light apart from red. The red light hits the apple and bounces off into your eyes, which your brain registers and that is why you see it as red.

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