Eli5: Why do things have the colors they have? I know that colors are just different wave lenghts, but why does an egg yolk for example reflect the waves that make it yellow? Why isnt it for example reflecting green waves? I dont understand how things “decide” what kind of light they reflect.
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Things are made of atoms. Atoms have little electrons zipping around. These electrons can be farther or closer to the core. The more energy they have, the farther away they tend to be. If you add energy (like shining a light or adding heat for example) they will jump farther away from the core. It can’t stay up there forever, so it will release some of its energy to drop back down. Sometimes the energy comes off as light. Different atoms and molecules will give off different amounts of energy between these jumps, making different colors. It is just a weird quirk of what the thing is made of, not so much of a decision. There isn’t a good reason for the yolk of the egg to be yellow, it is just that the stuff it’s made of just so happens to give off yellow wavelengths of energy
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