Re: Color Mixing (Pigment) question

[Vickie Frohne <VFrohne@BEN.EDU>]

Actually, I have done the experiment, but I admit that I have not done it
recently. As per the ongoing discussion, the physics will differ
considerably depending on whether you're using oil paints, water colors,
printer dyes, crayons (remember crayons?), colored chalk, pastels, color
filters, computer programs, or mixing colored powders such as those used in
sand art. Some of the posts in the current thread are very interesting. It
is clear that there is a lot of confusion and oversimplification in the
texts. So even though color mixing is a physics topic in which
experimentation is frequently relegated to elementary school art classes,
the physics is far from simple.  Perhaps color is a topic that deserves far
more textbook space than it usually gets.

Vickie

-----Original Message-----
From: Forum for Physics Educators
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Sent: 5/19/2004 1:14 PM
Subject: Re: Color Mixing (Pigment) question


Vickie Frohne wrote in part:
> If you had a blue filter with a very narrow wavelength bandpass,
> stacked on top of a green filter with a very narrow bandpass, so that
>  the two wavelength ranges didn't overlap, then these filters would
> block the light entirely. But particles in mixed pigments are more
> side-by-side than blocking each other, so the reflected blue & green
> colors average.

That's a nice theory.  But have you done the experiment?