Do individual photons of light each contain all the colors of the light spectrum or is each single photon a single color?
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Photons don’t really have colour they are particles/waves that vibrate/propagate at a frequency. The more energy a photon has the more it vibrates. We perceive this vibration as colour with low frequency looking red and high being blue. Each photon has its own single energy so represents only one colour.
It is interesting to note that not all colours represent a frequency of photon brown and pink are our brains combining multiple photos.
I wonder if you are trying to think how prisms work. You put in one color of light (white) and get the entire rainbow back out.
As others pointed out, light only has a single color at any particular time. The color of light is determined by its wavelength. HOWEVER the color that we see is the combination of all the different wavelengths of light hitting our eyes.
So, when we see sunlight or a flashlight that looks white, that is not because every single photon is “white”, but rather the sum of all the different colors mixing is perceived as white.
When you use something like a prism, what you are doing is taking the “white” light that has all the colors mixed together and seperating and organizing those colors. So all the red photons go one way and all the blue photons go the opposite way.
None of the colors have changed, they just are organized.
Photons, unlike matter, are very easy to create and destroy. Photons get created by just about anything that releases bursts of energy — fire, the sun, TV, lightning, etc. Even people create infrared photons — aka body heat. When it’s created, a photon’s wavelength depends on how much energy went into its creation (and some other factors). The photon is destroyed when it gets absorbed by matter — including, sometimes, your eyeball. Every wavelength corresponds to a color (or as an “invisible color” like ultraviolet or radio wave).
The color of a photon could change if the wavelength of the photon changes. On Earth, this is rare. Most photons you encounter will live a short and simple life as only one color. But if you can mess around with the speed of the photon, you can change its color. The most common example of this is “red shift.” Very distant stars look redder on Earth than they would if we were near the stars, because the expansion of the universe stretches out the wavelength of the photon over very long distances and very long time frames.
The color of a photon is related to its energy. Each photon has a specific amount of energy so it has a specific color.
Photons don’t really have colour they are particles/waves that vibrate/propagate at a frequency. The more energy a photon has the more it vibrates. We perceive this vibration as colour with low frequency looking red and high being blue. Each photon has its own single energy so represents only one colour.
It is interesting to note that not all colours represent a frequency of photon brown and pink are our brains combining multiple photos.
Photons don’t really have colour they are particles/waves that vibrate/propagate at a frequency. The more energy a photon has the more it vibrates. We perceive this vibration as colour with low frequency looking red and high being blue. Each photon has its own single energy so represents only one colour.
It is interesting to note that not all colours represent a frequency of photon brown and pink are our brains combining multiple photos.
The color of a photon is related to its energy. Each photon has a specific amount of energy so it has a specific color.
The color of a photon is related to its energy. Each photon has a specific amount of energy so it has a specific color.
A photon has a wavelength, and when a certain wavelength of light hits our eyes, we see it as a color. A mix of different wavelengths appear to us as other colors; and a whole bunch of different wavelengths together looks white.
Each photon, though, is just one wavelength; a single “pure” color. The thing is, though, the wavelength / color can change. For example, if you move towards it, the wavelength is shorter and color shifts bluer; move away, the wavelength and color shifts redder.
A photon has a wavelength, and when a certain wavelength of light hits our eyes, we see it as a color. A mix of different wavelengths appear to us as other colors; and a whole bunch of different wavelengths together looks white.
Each photon, though, is just one wavelength; a single “pure” color. The thing is, though, the wavelength / color can change. For example, if you move towards it, the wavelength is shorter and color shifts bluer; move away, the wavelength and color shifts redder.
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