Colour booklet

colourThe origin of colourColour is created by the interplay of light, colour-giving substances and the human eye. In this sectionwe shall look more closely at the role of light and colour-giving substances.Light as the source of colourThanks to light we are able to perceive colours. In the dark we see nothing. White lightis made up of all the colours of the rainbow. A triangular piece of glass, a prism,demonstrates this. If a beam of light passes through a prism, the different coloursbecome visible. We call this series of colours the spectrum. In addition at either end ofthe spectrum there are invisible rays - at the red end infrared, at the blue end ultraviolet(ill. 1).Reflection and absorptionMost colours do not originate directly from a light source. They are created by an interplayof light, the human eye and colour-giving substances. Trees, flowers and fruits,human beings and animals, stones and even earth allow us to see countless colourswithout themselves generating light. They exhibit colours through colour-givingsubstances.pagen 3