How can light be broken into colours or combined to make a new colour?


Targets
At the end of this unit, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. Where is light found in our world? (sun, electric lights, objects that glow)

1.1 What objects emit their own light? What objects need a light source to be seen?

1.2 How is looking at the sun or bright light dangerous?
2. How does light interact with other materials?

2.1 How can we use light to classify objects as transparent, translucent, or opaque?

2.2 How do objects create shadow?
3. How does light travel?

3.1 What happens when light hits a surface? (absorbed, reflected, or refracted)

3.2 How can light be broken into colours or combined to make a new colour?

3.3 How do various optical devices work?
Targets
“White” light is what we call the light from the sun. It is actually all the colours of the rainbow combined to give us this white light. Light enables us to see various colours.

You already know that when light hits an object, some light can be absorbed and some light can be reflected. Now, you will learn that the light that is absorbed or reflected will also determine what colour we see. Find out how the white light that comes from the Sun becomes all the colours you see around you on Earth.

Video

Watch this ADLC Lesson on Prisms and Colour.