How do we see colour?

Year 11 Physics students have been looking into visible light and colour. Objects appear coloured because of the way they reflect light. Sunlight is a mixture of all wavelengths of light and combine to form brilliant white light. Year 11 have spent time using a glass prism to disperse white light and show all the different wavelengths of coloured light.

Do you know the colours in a rainbow? Can you remember them using this rhyme – Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain?

Some surfaces reflect all of the light, while others absorb (take in) some wavelengths.

The black ball appears black because it absorbs all of the wavelengths. The white ball appears white as it reflects all of the wavelengths and the red ball absorbs all the wavelengths except red so it appears red.

Question: What is a perfect blackbody?

Mrs Honeyman
Curriculum Leader for Science