The Science and Technology of Color - Auburn University
The Science and Technology of Color
Activity Overview
In this activity, students investigate some physical properties of color. Color, as it is perceived by the human eye, is actually an electromagnetic wave of visible light. The eye can detect over 10 million colors, through the use of receptors on the retina called rods and cones. Students will be using a digital camera attached to the computer to photograph a spectrum of color, and then they will analyze these colors in terms of the frequency, wavelength, Red/Green/Blue values, and Cyan/Magenta/Yellow values. They will investigate how colored lights are combined to produce specific colors, and how colored inks are used on paper as well. They will also learn how to create a simple webpage which displays the colors in the spectra they photographed.
Advantages of Technology
Through the use of computer technology and peripherals, students can capture colors, analyze them, and reproduce them in light and ink. Learning becomes a creative activity in this lesson, and the information that will be gathered and examined cannot be obtained through print media alone.
Educational Standards
Virginia Standards of Learning addressed in this activity include:
PS.9 The student will investigate and understand the nature and technological applications of light.
Key concepts include
a) the wave behavior of light (reflection, refraction, diffraction, and interference);
b) images formed by lenses and mirrors; and
c) the electromagnetic spectrum.
Materials
• Computer with Internet access and Java virtual engine installed ()
• Digital camera attached to computer
• Camerascope software, free to download from
• Color printer
• Paint program (provided by Microsoft operating systems)
• Notepad program (provided by Microsoft operating systems)
• Spectra program, free to download from
• PowerPoint program, to show the slideshow, Color Images, which includes student directions, and the images contained in this lesson.
Procedure 1: Additive Colors of Light
Light may appear colorless, but it is actually composed of a spectrum of many colors, all the colors of the rainbow. We see these colors because our eyes have color receptors called cone cells, located on our retinas. Yet, oddly enough, our eyes can only detect three colors, which we call the three primary colors of light. How is it that our brain sees so many millions of colors with eyes that only have the ability to see three? Use the following applet to investigate this question.
[pic]
Additive Colors applet screenshot
Assessment: Ask your class the following questions:
How does the eye see white if the cone cells only see color?
How does the eye see yellow?
The primary colors of light are red, green, and blue. The secondary colors are yellow, cyan (light blue) and magenta (hot pink). Devise a code for creating these secondary colors. Example: R+B=Y
Most children are taught that the primary colors are red, blue and yellow, so this activity may surprise your students. The secondary colors of light are created when two primary colors are added, or when a primary color is taken away from white light. Cyan is actually white light without red. Yellow is actually white light without blue. Show your students the following equations and see if they can relate them to what the applet shows:
Since W=(R+B+G),
Then (W-R) = (B+G).
Therefore, W-R = Cyan because B+G = Cyan.
Procedure 2: Subtractive Colors of Light
What would happen to white light if all the primary colors are subtracted, not just one? If all three primary colors are taken away, no light is left. The color is black. Ask your students if they could make black light? The first thing they may think of is a “black light” used in haunted houses and such. Inform you students that black lights put off white light that has been filtered, but light is still coming out of the bulb. Use the following applet to investigate the question of how to make” black light”.
[pic]
Subtractive Colors applet screenshot
Note that this applet shows what happens when a primary color is subtracted from white light. When blue is subtracted from white light, you have yellow. Cyan and magenta are also formed by subtracting one primary color of light from white light. When al three primary colors are subtracted, we have the absence of light which we call black. When cyan, magenta, and yellow are added, all three primary colors of light are essentially subtracted, and no light is left.
Assessment: Ask your students the following questions:
How does your eye perceive black if the cone cells only see color?
Devise a code for creating black. If W=R+B+G, then what is black?
Procedure 3: Television and Computer Displays
Your computer display creates black much the same way that your eye does, because the display is composed of tiny dots of red, green and blue light. Each dot of light is called a Pixel, which means “picture element”. When none of these lights are turned on in a pixel, the screen is black. Show your students the following close-up images of a television screen. On the right, in the magnified view, you can see the individual pixels.
[pic]
Procedure 4: Colored Paints and Inks
Much like a computer screen, a color printer can create a multitude of hues with only three ink colors, but a printer uses the secondary colors for its ink. That way, it can make black without even using black ink at all. Recall that combining all three secondary colors of light is like subtracting all the primary colors of light. Ask your students if they have ever replaced the ink cartridges on a color printer, and what colors the inks were? Show your students the following close-up image of a pictures created with a color printer.
[pic]
Procedure 5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum of Visible Light
Visible light consists of electromagnetic waves within a range of frequencies and wavelengths. Visible light can be detected by the human eye if it is between wavelengths of 400 – 700 nanometers. Each wavelength has a characteristic color. A prism can be used to separate white light into this spectrum of colors, much like a rainbow does. Astronomers can also use a diffraction grating, a film covered with microscopic grooves, to separate the light coming from stars into spectra. The spectrum from a distant star can be analyzed and compared to the spectrum from our own sun. Prisms and diffraction gratings work because each different wavelength of light bends at a different angle when it passes through.
Assessment: Ask your students the following questions:
Have you ever used a prism or diffraction grating?
How do you think they work?
Look around you and see if there’s anything in this room that could be used to separate light into its different wavelengths like a prism or a diffraction grating does?
Then show your students the following images of spectra:
[pic][pic]
[pic][pic]
Procedure 6: Spectra
Download the following free program: Spectra
Install the software, and have students explore its uses. In the Visible Light section, move your cursor back and forth along the spectrum, observing the wavelength and frequency displayed near the Color Box. The unit symbol, “nm” represents nanometer, [pic]meter, or one billionth of a meter. The unit symbol, “THz” represents terahertz, [pic] Hertz, or one trillion cycles per second.
[pic]
Spectra screenshot
Light from other hot or burning objects may not contain all of these colors. By looking at the spectra from different light sources, we can understand what elements are creating that light. This was discovered in 1814 by Joseph Fraunhofer,
with further discoveries made in 1859 by Gustav Kirchhoff
and Robert Bunsen.
Assessment: Ask your students the following questions:
What color seems to dominate the spectrum of visible light?
Why might this be?
What other observations can you make about the spectrum?
What do you think R G and B stand for under the Color Box?
Procedure 7: Photographing a Spectrum
When you asked your students to look around the room and find an object that would separate light into its colors, did they mention a compact disk (a CD-ROM or CD-R)? The back side of a CD behaves like a particular type of diffraction grating called a reflection grating. The spiraling rows and rows of little pits on the surface of the CD don’t transmit light like a diffraction grating would; they bend and reflect the light. Each wavelength of light is bent a different amount, which separates the light into colors. The pits are so tiny and so close together, only 1.6 micrometers apart, that they cannot be seen with an ordinary microscope. When light reflects out of these pits, red light from the spectrum is bent the most, approximately 24°. Purple light is bent the least, 14.5°. This separation of light is called dispersion.
Download the free software, CameraScope, from
and use this software, along with a web camera, to photograph a spectrum on a CD. Hold the CD so that light from a window or a lamp bounces off its back side. If the light in the room is strong enough, you may be able to photograph the reflected spectrum as it falls on a wall or piece of white paper.
[pic]
CameraScope screenshot
If you do not have access to a web camera, you can use other digital cameras too, or you can use some of these images for your students to observe and analyze. [pic][pic][pic][pic][pic]
Procedure 8: Analyzing the Spectrum
Use the Windows program, Paint, to examine the photographed spectrum.
[pic]
Paint Screenshot
To analyze the colors of the spectrum, select the dropper tool and click on a color.
Click Colors, Edit Colors, Define Custom Colors, and take a look at the Red Green Blue section. These values are used in computer technology to describe a color in terms of the amount of primary light colors, from a range of 0 – 255. Have your students do this for several colors on the spectrum while they record their findings on the Student Worksheet.
See if your students can compare their spectrum with the Spectra image. Can they estimate the frequency and wavelength of each color in their spectra? Sliding the cursor over the Spectra image displays these values in the lower right-hand corner of the display. Have them record these estimates in the Student Worksheet.
Assessment: Ask your students the following questions:
Does your photo resemble the spectrum shown in the program, Spectra?
Why might it be different?
Can you see a pattern in the RGB values of each color of light?
Use the following formula to calculate the speed of light:
speed of light “c” = frequency (f) x wavelength (λ)
Procedure 9: Light to Ink
In the computer industry, RGB values range from 0-255. RGB values can be converted to CMY values used by printers to specify the amount of cyan, magenta, and yellow inks to be used. CMY values are given in a decimal range from 0-1, or a percent range from 0% - 100%. Can your students use their equations for cyan, magenta, and yellow to determine the CMY values for the colors in their spectrum? In case this proves too difficult, here are the equations:
C=1-(R/255) x100%
M=1-(G/255) x100%
Y=1-(B/255) x100%
Have your students do these conversions, recording their results on the Student Worksheet.
Procedure 10: HEX Codes for Web Pages
While RGB values are coded in the standard base-10 way, webpage developers have special codes called HEX codes for the multitude of colors they can use for their designs. The Base-10 method uses ten digits to represent a value: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,and 9. HEX is a Base-16 method, using combinations of sixteen digits to represent a value: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E, and F. Converting RGB values into HEX codes is fun, but it is time consuming. If you want to learn how to do this yourself and teach your students, see the document, Converting RGB to HEX. Otherwise, access the following website, hex converter.htm for a simple calculator that converts RGB values into HEX codes. Have your student use this calculator and record their results on the Student Worksheet. . After doing this conversion, your students can very easily create a simple webpage using these HEX codes for their spectrum colors.
[pic]
RGB to HEX Calculator
Procedure 11: Making a Spectrum Webpage
Open the webpage template, specweb template.txt with the Windows program, Notepad.
Insert the HEX codes into the spaces between the quote marks and after the # sign for each line after you see the code, BGCOLOR= “# ”. Insert the estimated wavelength of the color of light into the line below. The example below has six colors represented.
[pic]
When finished, save the file by clicking, File, Save As. You must give the file a new name, and be sure to type the extension, .htm afterwards. Example: myspectrum.htm. To view your webpage, open up Internet Explorer, and click File, Open, Browse to find your newly-created webpage.
Your webpage will resemble this:
[pic]
Assessment Strategies
Throughout this lesson, there are discussion questions posed for informal assessment of students’ understanding. For a more formal assessment, see the document, Color Comprehension Check. The final projects: the spectra photograph, the color analysis worksheet, and the spectra webpage, also assess students’ understanding. You can challenge your students to make a spectra webpage with more of a color gradient, say with twelve different colors represented instead of six. Students will have to create more lines of text in the HTML source code of specweb.htm, but they can copy and paste them. If they’re successful, the webpage will look something like this:
[pic]
Additional Resources
RGB Java applet
Filtering colors out of white light
Color HEX codes
HEX to RGB and RGB to HEX
History of Neon Signs
Lots of good stuff
Info on the eye
History of optics
Spectral colors
Spectra
Using a CD-ROM to see the spectrum
Make permanent rainbows
Wavelength of colors
Approximate RGB values for wavelength
The Science of Color (additive and subtractive)
Additive colors Java applet
Additive and Subtractive applet
Subtractive colors Java applet
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Dropper Tool
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