How Do We See Color?

How Do We See Color? Color Addition Color Subtraction What is Color? The Electromagnetic Spectrum How We See Color What Is Color Blindness Tests For Color Blindness For Color blindness test  Resources

Color Addition

Color Vision

Televisions and Projectors

Stage Lighting

Color Subtraction

Pigments

Makeup

Print

Image credit: colors on the web

www.colorcube.com/puzzle/puzzle.htm

What is Color?

Web  Definitions:

• a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect; "a white color is made up of many different wavelengths of light"  
• Color is the byproduct of the spectrum of light, as it is reflected or absorbed, as received by the human eye and processed by the human brain.

Color Basics:

Visible light is made of seven wavelength groups. These are the colors you see in a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet— ROY G. BIV

The reddish colors are the long wavelengths. The greenish colors are the mid-size wavelengths. The bluish color are the short wavelengths. (added by bailey, per 8)

Info on the eye and color!

Scientifically speaking, color is the amount of light absorbed by an object.  When light hits an object, the eye sees a certain amount of light , also certain types of light. There are some types of light you can not see with the human eye. The eye sends a message to the brain interpreting the light as a color.  If you put all the colors of the rainbow together you would see white. Black is technically not a color, but the absence of light. Every color is made from a mixture of yellow, magenta, and cyan.  They can be a mixture of all three or just two of them.

 Color Wheels:

• Primary colors are the defining colors of the wheel. In the color wheels below, they appear in the center as well as equally spaced around the circle. On the traditional artist's color wheel red, blue, and yellow are primary colors.
• Secondary colors are the three colors that are equal distant from the primary colors. On the traditional artist's color wheel violet, green, and orange are secondary colors.
• Tertiary colors are the colors between each primary and secondary color. On the traditional artist's color wheel red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange, and red-orange are tertiary colors.
  A standard color wheel will often contain 12 distinct hues (shades), but they do not have information on saturation or value.
  Primary, secondary and tertiary are the three categories that these 12 hues are categorized in (above)
  <----- Artists Wheel, used for mixing paints
  <-----The subtractive color wheel. This color wheel uses the printing inks cyan, magenta, and yellow as primary colors. Note: Because cyan, magenta, and yellow inks do not combine to make black, the printing process adds black as a fourth ink
  <-----Additive Color. This color wheel displays the additive colors used for projected light. When mixed together the additive primaries form white. The primaries are red, green and blue. These colors are extremely bright because light that is projected can be far more intense than printed color.

The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Image credit: www.crisp.nus.edu 

The electromagnetic spectrum represents the wavelengths of different color lights visible to the human eye.  Infrared is the longest and ultraviolet is the shortest.  The brain interprets these wavelengths as color.  Ultraviolet light can cause cancer but fortunately 90% of these rays will be blocked by the ozone layer.  A chemical in our bodies called melatonin absorbs UV rays, also preventing cancer.

How We See Color

Structures in our eyes known as rods and cones allow us to see color.  Cones see color and rods see black and white.  Since every color is made from magenta, yellow, and cyan our brain has a special "code" for every color we see.  The code consists of how much of each base color is in what we see.  The brain measures the amount of each and comes up with a number for that amount. 

What Is Color Blindness

Color blindness is when the cones in your eye are damaged or missing. This normally isn't developed its normally a birth defect, but can happen for other reason for damaging the eye or retina.

Tests For Color Blindness

source- http://www.answers.com/topic/colorblindtest38-png 

 "Most people will see the number 38, but people with red-green color blindness might see 88 instead."

 that is just one test that can be used to find out of someone is red-green color blind. there are other different kinds of color blindness

For Color blindness test

Test 1  

Test 2 

Works Cited:

http://www.devx.com/projectcool/Article/19954

http://www.devx.com/projectcool/Article/19954/0/page/4

(added by bailey)

Edited By D.J

 Resources

Color Vision by Peter Gouras

Hyperphysics