light：Color Addition Subtraction Spectra.pptVIP

Spring 2006 UCSD: Physics 8; 2006 05/30/2006 Light, Color, Spectra Lecture 17 Light Color Color Addition Subtraction Spectra What do we see? Our eyes can’t detect intrinsic light from objects (mostly infrared), unless they get “red hot” The light we see is from the sun or from artificial light When we see objects, we see reflected light immediate bouncing of incident light (zero delay) Very occasionally we see light that has been absorbed, then re-emitted at a different wavelength called fluorescence, phosphorescence, luminescence Colors Light is characterized by frequency, or more commonly, by wavelength Visible light spans from 400 nm to 700 nm or 0.4 ?m to 0.7 ?m; 0.0004 mm to 0.0007 mm, etc. White light White light is the combination of all wavelengths, with equal representation “red hot” poker has much more red than blue light experiment: red, green, and blue light bulbs make white RGB monitor combines these colors to display white Additive Colors Red, Green, and Blue light sources can be used to synthesize almost any perceivable color Red + Green = Yellow Red + Blue = Magenta Green + Blue = Cyan These three dual-source colors become the primary colors for subtraction why? because absence of green is magenta absence of red is cyan, etc. Subtractive colors But most things we see are not light sources Reflection takes away some of the incident light thus the term subtractive If incident light is white, yellow is absence of blue What’s responsible for selective absorption? Carotene makes carrots orange, tomatoes red, daffodils yellow, leaves turn must absorb blue light Long, organic molecular chain most dyes, pigments are such resonances in optical light Chlorophyll makes leaves green must absorb red and blue Questions Why, when you mix all your paints together, do you just get dark brown or black? Why not white? Why is the sky blue, and the low sun/moon orange? Are these related? Our limited sensitivity to light In bright-light situations (called photopic