By Catherine Sloat In 1666, Sir Isaac Newton began
the surface of the ocean. Typically, if it’s a bright sunny day the blue color will appear more saturated and lighter as it is reflecting off the light blue of the sky, but appear darker on a day that is overcast. Earth’s atmosphere is a compilation of wavelengths that are constantly in motion. Humans are able to see, smell, and hear because the body detects these wavelengths. When it comes to color, wavelengths bounce off of objects to reflect a particular color which the human eye detects. The perception of what color a particular object is, comes naturally to us. In the same way the heart constantly pumps blood throughout the body, or the way a person breathes without having to tell themselves to do so, our eyes instinctively detect color. While the human eye can detect a plethora of different colors, it is actually only a very limited range of
colors on the electromagnetic spectrum. This spectrum is a visual representation of the visible and invisible light wavelengths that exist. The spectrum ranges from ultraviolet to infrared, and between the two is what is visible to humans. The higher end of the spectrum begins with infrared and red, which have longer wavelengths and emit less energy. The spectrum moves along like the colors of a rainbow: beginning with red, then flowing to orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Violet has the shortest wavelength and releases the most amount of energy. When a particular wavelength hits an ultraviolet wavelength, the human eye can no longer perceive the color because humans don’t have the specific cones to detect the light at that frequency. To detect these colors the retina in the back of our eyes
performing a series of experiments on the relationship between color and light. By drilling a hole in the shutter of a window, he allowed a beam of light to shine in and pass through a glass prism that revealed a rainbow-like reflection on the opposite wall. What he discovered was the science of color. Through this experiment, Newton not only established proof that color comes in the forms of wavelengths, but also distinguished seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. This scientific discovery led to the creation of the first-known color wheel. Color isn’t innate to objects. The ocean itself isn’t blue or turquoise. When light-waves hit the liquid mass we’re able to identify it as a color. The ocean’s surface is reflect- ing the “blue” wavelengths and absorbing all other colors that hit
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