I understand the way we see colour but what i dont understand is why certain things absorb & reflect certain types of light is it what the are made of? Like the elements or has it got to do with something else? Like whatever it is that makes the plants green (i forget what its called) it absorbs red & blue light but reflects green light, why? is it just because that the way it is?
2007-10-07 23:26:17 · 3 answers · asked by asphyxia 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
it has to do with what they are made of, especially the electrons in the atoms that make up the compounds. electrons can only absorb light that will send them into pre-set orbitals. an orbital represents a discrete amount of energy and so does a particular color because color is frequency and freqency times planks constant is energy. the energy of the incoming light has to match the energy level of the electron's next orbital. then the material will abosorb that light and you will see the sum total of what is not absorbed.
2007-10-07 23:43:36 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Colors are produced by absorpition of some wavelengths and reflection of the rest as you have rightly put. That substance in the plant leaves is chlorophyll. Haemoglobin in blood is red.
If the selective absorption of wavelengths doesn't take place, the world would be devoid of color and would be certainly much less beautiful (just black and white).
Color is perceived by us by means of rods and cones in the retina.
Different substances absorb different bands of electromagnetic radiation. Also different substances emit different bands of wavelength when excited (sodium vapor emits the golden yellow). It is closely related to the electronic sructure of the element or compound.
2007-10-08 06:37:15 · answer #2 · answered by Swamy 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
matter has its own natural frequency... so when that a wave of a frequency, x, touches the object with the same natural frequency, x, it reflects it... that color is what we see...
so maybe the chlorophyll (the green pigments) has substances that has the natural frequency the same as the color green...
the absorbed frequencies are stored and usually heats the substance... :D
(just a wild guess... ^^)
2007-10-08 06:41:45 · answer #3 · answered by miguel_yorro 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋