In light, white is more than you think

In art class, where we work with crayons and paint, we learn that black is "the presence of all colors" and white is "the absence of all colors," and the primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. Not so with light. In light, as you will see in this exhibit, white is the presence of all colors, and the primary colors are red, green and blue.

Inside White Light consists of a white light source, a prism (a special filter that separates the white light into its parts), and two white panels. The panel on the left shows the spectrum cast through the prism, the panel on the right shows the color of the light source that does not pass through the spectrum. We place red, amber (yellow), green and blue filters between the light source and the prism to see how the colored filters affect the spectrum.

Choose a colored filter . . .

Back to Light! Spectra! Action!

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