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colour
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References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics
Images & Videos
Color wheel
The video thumbnail image shows a purple and pink flower in a field.
Who created the color wheel?
Isaac Newton's prism experiment
The science behind the color black
colour circle colour mixing energy distribution in light from daylight spectral reflectance curve of emerald green chromaticity diagram
For Students
Diffraction grating
colour summary
Quizzes
Artist paint brushes and watercolor paintbox on wooden palette. Instruments and tools for creative leisure. Creative background. Paintings art concept. Painting hobby. Back to school. Top view.
More Art and Colors Quiz
Color wheel, visible light, color spectrum. Colour wheel
The Origins of Colors, Pigments, and Dyes
Read Next
baby girl with toy bunny rabbit.
Has Pink Always Been a “Girly” Color?
Color wheel, visible light, color spectrum. Colour wheel
Are Black and White Colors?
Discover
The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (Alice in Wonderland)
11 Banned Books Through Time
Thanksgiving Celebration Traditional Dinner Setting Food Concept
Why Is Thanksgiving in the U.S. Celebrated on a Thursday?
A Factory Interior, watercolor, pen and gray ink, graphite, and white goache on wove paper by unknown artist, c. 1871-91; in the Yale Center for British Art. Industrial Revolution England
Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution
Woman tied to a ducking stool, a method of punishment by means of humiliation, beating, or death. (cucking stool)
8 Unusual Punishments Inflicted on Women Throughout History
Thanksgiving Turkey with all the sides
Why Do We Eat Turkey on Thanksgiving?
Rural Irish landscape, Sligo, Ireland.
Why Is Ireland Two Countries?
Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1855), founder of the house of Rothschild; lithograph by Friedrich Lieder, c. 1830.
Where Do Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories About the Rothschild Family Come From?

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Videos

How color works: Hue, saturation, and pigment
Colors result from the electromagnetic radiation of a range of wavelengths visible...
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Who created the color wheel?
For millennia, many believed Aristotle's theory that all colors were a mixture of...
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The science behind the color black
Learn why the colour black appears the way it does and how researchers are creating...
Video: © American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
How do blind people perceive the world?
Learn how blind people dream.
Video: Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz
Uncover the reason why some people do not perceive colors in the same way
Why not all people perceive colours the same way.
Video: © Behind the News (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Learn how the layered arrangement of chlorophyll molecules within a leaf increases its photosynthetic output.
Molecules of chlorophyll, the key photosynthetic pigment in green plants, are arranged...
Video: © MinuteEarth (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Understand the science of appearance of different colors of the rainbow
Learn about the colours of the rainbow.
Video: © MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Uncover the science behind the pink wavelengths of light
Explanation of why there are no pink wavelengths of light.
Video: © MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
How do color and scent affect taste?
Researchers investigating how smell and colour affect flavour.
Video: Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz
Miyazaki Hayao: The Meaning of Colour
Learn more about Studio Ghibli and how animator Miyazaki Hayao uses colour.
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Accidental discoveries that transformed the world
Discover the accidental invention stories behind several products.
Video: © American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Uncover the reason why the sky is not purple with the help of a chromaticity diagram
Explanation using a chromaticity diagram to explain why the sky is not purple.
Video: © MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Understand the phenomenon of the yellow color sun and the blue sky
Why is the Sun yellow and the sky blue? Learn how light from the Sun and sky scatters...
Video: © MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

Images

Color wheel
The RYB color model is being illustrated on a color wheel.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Isaac Newton's prism experiment
Isaac Newton's prism experiment, 1666.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
colour circle
One form of Newton's colour circle.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
colour mixing
(Left) The additive mixing of red, green, and blue. (Right) The subtractive mixing...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
energy distribution in light from daylight
The energy distribution in light from daylight, an incandescent lamp, and a fluorescent...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
spectral reflectance curve of emerald green
Spectral reflectance curve of the artist's pigment emerald green.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
chromaticity diagram
The location on the chromaticity diagram of the achromatic point W, the...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Munsell colour system
Munsell colour system.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Munsell's colour solid
The hue, value, and chroma coordinates of Munsell's colour solid.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Ostwald colour system
Ostwald colour system.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
energy level diagrams
(Left) The energy level diagram of ruby with allowed transitions and (centre) the...
From K. Nassau, Physics and Chemistry of Color (1983); John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
density-of-states diagram of copper
Density-of-states diagram of copper metal.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
density of states diagram
(Left) The absorption of light in a band-gap material. (Right) The variation of colour...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
chloride vacancy trap
Chloride vacancy trap in the band gap of salt and its filling by the absorption of...
From K. Nassau, Physics and Chemistry of Color (1983); John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Diffraction grating
Spectrum of white light by a diffraction grating. With a prism, the red end of the...
Courtesy of Bausch & Lomb, Rochester, N.Y.
colour
A variety of colourful paints.
© adimas/Fotolia
prism spreading light
A prism spreads white light into its various component wavelengths, or colours.
© Getty Images
emotive color relationships
An identical pattern of shapes may express a different emotional mood through each...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
visible spectrum of light
When white light is spread apart by a prism or a diffraction grating, the colours...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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