What makes colors

A black crayon or marker cap absorbs all colors equally and reflects none, so it looks black to us. While artists consider black a color, scientists do not because black is the absence of all color. All light rays contain color. Light is made of electromagnetic waves. These waves spread out from any light source, such as the sun. Light waves travel at tremendous speed , miles or , kilometers per second. Different colors have different wavelengths, which is the distance between corresponding parts of two of the waves.

That's a great question, Ammie! We found an interesting page on the U. National Library of Medicine website, called " Healing Plants. That is a really interesting question! What if there are colors that don't come out in the fall? Like black or white or gray? Could it be possible to find this out by using special kinds of light?

Have any experiments been done. I think I might do an experiment on this in science lab. We hope that you'll share what you learn with us so that we learn something new too! That's a great question, Chloe! Are there experiments that could be performed to discover other colors? We're glad you enjoyed today's Wonder, Amelia! Submit them on this page and your question may become a future Wonder of the Day! Hey, Sierra! As for trees, they've been around a LONG time! Trees first began to appear on Earth million years ago, during the Devonian period!

We are undergoing some spring clearing site maintenance and need to temporarily disable the commenting feature. Thanks for your patience. Drag a word to its definition. You have answered 0 of 3 questions correctly and your score is:. Want to add a little wonder to your website?

Help spread the wonder of families learning together. We sent you SMS, for complete subscription please reply. Follow Twitter Instagram Facebook. What makes things change colors? Why do leaves change colors in the fall? How do chameleons change colors? Tags: See All Tags autumn , biology , chameleon , chlorophyll , chromatophore , color , leaves , light , mood ring , science , technology , wavelength.

Wonder What's Next? Can a food be a cleaner? Find out tomorrow in Wonderopolis! Keep the learning going by checking out the following activities with a friend or family member: What's your favorite color? Has that color always been your favorite color?

Or have you changed favorite colors over the years? Take an informal poll of your friends and family members. What are their favorite colors? Have they always had the same favorite colors?

Or have they changed over the years? Why might someone change favorite colors? Do you find chameleons fascinating? We do! Check out National Geographic's Petter's Chameleon video to see these curious creatures from Madagascar in color-changing action! Up for a challenge? We challenge you to invent the world's first automobile with the ability to change colors. Want a bright red car? It's red! How about baby blue instead? No problem! Simply push a button and it's blue.

No more having to choose only one color for your vehicle. Tertiary colors can be created by mixing certain colors:. Option 1 produces the least beautiful result, because, by using three primary colors, this causes our brain to see more grayscale. Option 2 is the least expensive way of mixing. The best result — which our brain perceives as most beautiful — is created when mixing complementary colors see later , such as in option 3. By applying this way of mixing, the primary color, to which the color to be mixed is closely related, constitutes the starting point.

By then adding the complementary color, the main color will stand out more and get more character. The created color will give our brain a more pure color impulse. Trichromatic black is the black that occurs when mixing the three primary colors.

The result is very dark anthracite almost black. To make a color grayer or to mix color, it is better to use trichromatic black or anthracite and never use true black ink black. This way the color stays pure. Over the course of time, all kinds of systems and theories have been developed to arrange and map colors in a universal, easy to use way.

The Munsell Color System was developed at the beginning of last century by Munsell, the American inventor and artist. In this system, colors were visualized in a sphere around an axis of grayscale values. Horizontally, there was a gradient from neutral gray to full saturation. Munsell called these values: hue, chroma and value. Hue stands for color tone and represents the location of a color on the color wheel. One speaks of the hue- or color angle, which is expressed in degrees.

The strength of a color is called chroma by Munsell. Maximally saturated colors are the most intense colors. Value indicates the brightness: the amount of light that is reflected by a color. White, for example, has the greatest brightness and black the least. It was significant that Munsell discovered that the full chroma of individual colors could be achieved at different locations in the color area. Yellow reaches its optimal color, for example, at a much higher saturation than red. This has led to a visual representation of an asymmetrical sphere or spinning top.

The Munsell Color System was created empirically and is mainly based on how we perceive color. It has a less mathematical and scientific basis, but provided important insights into saturation and is still a recognized color system. The company that Munsell founded in still exists. The commission was established as an independent forum that, among other things, had as its objective the development of an international standard.

The CIE model approximates the human perception of color as closely as possible and constitutes the basis and standard on which our Color Cluster System was developed. This was because the colors enter our brains in a specific sequence first red, then green and then blue. Red produces the most powerful impulses and is therefore the strongest color, followed by green and blue. A color observation will translate a color between the receptors and the brain with distinctions between light and dark, indicated by a vertical L or luminosity axis, which represents the brightness, and between red, green, blue and yellow, indicated by the horizontal a and b axes, which represent the observable color space.

As we just saw, color is indicated by three values: the L-value indicates the brightness on a scale from 0 black to white , the a and b values define the color. We can measure these three values with a colorimeter or spectrophotometer that is converted to Lab values. By combining the coordinates of the three axes, we arrive at a clear position of a color in the color sphere, which in reality is not a perfect sphere, given the differences in saturation, as discovered by Munsell.

HSV en HCL are two very simple models for defining color for desktop applications and graphic programs, closely corresponding to the way we perceive color. In HSV , these are hue, saturation and value. In HCL , they are determined by hue, chroma and luminosity.

HSV is often used in graphics software. By specifying a hue and saturation rate, it is possible to set the brightness using the scrollbar and thus to select millions of colors. The digital era demanded a universal color coding, which, inter alia, could easily be used in HTML. In this final round, the most promising Asking what Innovation Drift is about, is a lot like asking what the future is about: there is no singular answer, and What is color? Light The most ideal light for seeing color is diffuse daylight , when the sun is more or less be hind the clouds and it is slightly rainy.

Object The presence of an object is the second condition for perceiving color. Eyes The third condition for seeing color, is that the rays should be caught by the eye.