how does light determine something’s color and why are things different colors?

Question

I teach art and am starting a unit in color, I’d really like some easy explanations to share with my middle schoolers

In: Other

Answer 1

“Color” is just how our brain interprets different frequencies of light. E.g. if some light with a wavelength of 650 nm enters your eye, your brain tells you that’s red.

The color of a thing in the world is basically down to which wavelengths it reflects and which ones it absorbs. If an object reflects a lot of red light and absorbs most other colors, we see that thing as red. If an object reflects all colors a lot, we see that as white (which is basically all of the wavelengths in roughly equal amounts). If an object doesn’t reflect very much light at all, we see it as dark or black.