16.2. Color http://www.ck12.org
- Theprimarycolors of light are red, green, and blue. This is due to the way our eyes see color and the chemical
reactions in the cone cells of the retina. Mixing these colors will produce thesecondary, or complementary
colors: magenta, cyan and yellow, as well as white. On the diagram below label colors to show how this
works: - Color printers use a different method of color mixing: color mixing bysubtraction. What colors are used
in this process? (HINT: look at the ink colors in an ink-jet printer, CYMB). The idea here is that each
colorsubtractsfrom the reflected light –for example, cyan ink reflects blue and green but SUBTRACTS red.
Explain with diagrams how CYM can be combined to produce red, blue, and green. - Answer the following light transmission questions
a. A beam of cyan light passes into a yellow filter. What color emerges?
b. A beam of yellow light passes into a magenta filter. What color emerges?
c. What color results when two beams of light, one cyan and one magenta, are made to overlap on a white
screen?
d. White light passes through a cyan filter followed by a magenta filter. What color emerges?
Answers to Selected Problems
- a. blue, black b. yellow c. red
2..
3.. - a. green b. red c. blue d. blue