Physics of Colors - What You Always Wanted to Understand
Color can be defined as the visual property in human beings which can be classified as blue, green, red, yellow and several others. The colors develop from the interaction with the light spectrum which is the distribution of wavelength against light energy on the eyes with the light receptor’s spectral sensitivity.
The categories and physical specifications of colors can be associated with light sources, objects, materials and other factors. These factors are based on light absorption, emission spectra and reflection. Colors can also be numerically identified by its coordination in the color space.
The Science of Colors
Colors are perceived by human beings because of the sensitivity of the cone cells in the retina of the eyes to the color spectrum. The colours can be defined and quantified by the degree with which it would stimulate the cones in our retina.
The science of colors is known as chromatics. The process would involve the way in which our eyes and brain perceive a color, the origin of the color in materials, the colour theory in art and electromagnetic radiation.
Electromagnetic Radiation
Given below are a few characteristics of the electromagnetic radiation:
- Wavelength or frequency is the visible light within the visible spectrum of human beings
- Intensity is the perception of colors in the color spectrum which can be altered like olive-green from yellow-green and to brown from orange-yellow.
Light sources emit light at different wavelengths. The color spectrum of source is the distribution which provides intensity in each of the wavelengths. The color sensation is usually determined by the light spectrum which reaches the eyes from different direction. Also, there are quite a lot of more spectral combinations compared to color sensations. Color can also be defined as the spectral which evolved from similar color sensation.
The Color Spectrum
The colors in the rainbow in the spectrum include all the colors which can be produced from one wavelength. These are pure spectral or monochromatic colors. Pure spectral colors produce continous spectrum. Culture and history too plays an important role on deciding how the spectrum would be divided into various colors. The main colors are as given below:
- Blue
- Violet
- Yellow
- Green
- Orange
- Red
Indigo is the 7th color which had been added to the spectrum. However, quite a lot of scientists do not recognize it as different from violet and blue.