Colors Around Us: Spectrum Absorption

Color of Objects:

• Light that emanates from the sun or any other source falls on various objects around us. This light gets reflected.
• The reflected light is captured in our eyes. So, every animal that can observe color has to have eyes that pick the reflected light.
• What happens between the time light falls on the object and reflects off decides the color of the object.

Spectrum Reflection:

• “Light is reflected” is a generic phrase. “A certain percent of light gets reflected” would be more precise.
• Almost all of us know that white light has 7 colors defined by their wavelengths.
• VIBGYOR – Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red are those colors which break out when light is refracted through a prism.
• It is true that different objects can absorb different strata of wavelengths.

White Objects:

• When the object is not able to absorb any range of this visible spectrum, then it bounces back the whole array of 7 colors which is captured by eyes, thereby making these objects appear white.

• There are a few objects which absorb Violet, Indigo, Yellow and Orange and therefore reflect only the Red, Blue and Green in equal amounts. When these three primary colors hit the eye in equal proportion, the object appears to be white.

Black Objects:

• When an object can absorb all the colors, then there is no feedback to the eyes in the form of light.
• Therefore, eyes think that there is no such object there, and brain perceives it to be black object.
• Since they absorb the whole spectrum of light, black surfaces get heated up quicker than lighter shaded surfaces.

Absorb All But One:

• Some objects absorb the whole spectrum except for one color component and therefore perceived by our eyes as that color that is reflected.

Absorb All But Two:

• Some objects absorb the whole spectrum except for two colors, which could be adjacent ones or random colors.
• These are perceived by the eyes in combination of the reflected two colors.
• For instance, when only blue and yellow are reflected, the object appears to green, though in fact, green has been absorbed by the object.

Colors are also formed by reflective properties of materials. Click on the link to learn more.