Visible Light and Why We See Colors
There is such a variety of colors in our lives; from the reds, oranges and yellows to the greens, blues and purples, and every shade in between. Life would be very dull without all the beautiful colors.
What is Visible Light?
Visible light is the electromagnetic waves of light visible to the human eye. When all are present, we see white light. When white light shines through a prism it is broken into the colors of the visible light spectrum. Water vapor in the atmosphere can also break apart wavelengths. That’s why we see rainbows.
Lengths of light waves starting with the longest and proceeding to the shortest: red (650 nm), orange (590 nm), yellow (570 nm), green (510 nm), blue (475 nm), indigo (445 nm) and violet (400 nm). A nanometer is the unit of measure used to describe wavelengths. One nanometer is equal to one billionth of a meter which is 39.37 inches. So we are talking about very small lengths.
Why Do We See Different Colors?
An object may absorb some of the waves and reflect others. We see only the ones it reflects. If it absorbs all of the wavelengths we will see black. If it is reflecting all of the wavelengths, we will see white. All of the other colors are combinations of reflected/absorbed wavelengths and how the receptors in our eyes capture them and how the brain interprets them.
Appreciate Your Colorful World!
Color enriches our lives in so many ways. It can set a mood, tell us if our food is ripe, and lets us express ourselves with our clothing or our home decorating. It helps us appreciate the beauty of our planet.
More Colorful Hubs!
- Why Are Sunrises and Sunsets So Colorful?
Author photo. Do a web search and you will come up with around 4 million photos. People love sunrises and sunsets. They are fascinating and they change by the second. They are definitely more interesting if... - Planetary Nebulae Imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope
Planetary Nebula is a huge misnomer. It has nothing to do with planets. They are not visible through the naked eye. They were originally named in the 18th century when astronomers looking through the small... - Galaxies Imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope
A galaxy is a system of an enormous collection of stars up to a trillion or more individual stars or suns, dust and gas held together by gravity. Each galaxy belongs to a larger cluster or supercluster. ...