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 What allows us to see in colour?


Three factors contribute to our seeing in Colour.

 

A white light source.
Colour Temperature

Not all light sources are the same, there can be variation in that they do not produce a pure white light. For instance a sun at noon produces a different colour illumination that a light bulb or a fluorescent light tube.


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Materials which reflect some wavelengths and absorb others.
If all materials reflected all wavelengths all materials would be white, while if they absorbed all wavelengths they would be black. In fact the colour we see an object as is actually the colour of the light it is reflecting.

A material that looks blue, is reflecting the blue light and absorbing both red and green.


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The ability to distinguish Colours also depends upon there being a sufficient quantity of light . Colours also look brightest in strong light, and appear to fade at dusk when increasingly we see objects only in shades of grey.


Sequence Learning