ELI5. Why mixing colours give us other colours. Like what’s the science behind?
In: Chemistry
Visible light is made up of a mixture of different wavelengths (colors). When hitting something all these are absorbed by the object except for the 1 (or a few) which is reflected. This reflected light is the color we see. If you look up to a light spectrum you can notice that these wavelengths gradually change the color, permitting us to see the difference between light and dark orange for example (as a specific wavelength will appear for dark orange and one for light orange). Some wavelength not present in the solar light spectrum can be seen as a fusion between 2 or more reflected wavelengths.
When mixing colors we are not doing anything but adding more waves that will be absorbed or reflected, ultimately summing to the ones we already have and changing the color we see. mixing blue with yellow will make make the compound reflect both blue and yellow waves, which combination will appear green to us (the high frequency yellow wave summed with a low frequency blue wave will give and intermediate frequency green wave).
White surfaces reflect all visible light (and hence reflect the combination of all these wavelengths together, which it appears white to us) while black surfaces, being the sum of all colors, will absorb all the colors and reflect nothing back (so we wont be able to see that object and it will appear black, like the absence of light).
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