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Asked by anon-192244 to Sophie, Simon, Obi, Kelly, Jessica on 5 Nov 2018.
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anon answered on 5 Nov 2018:
Colours are complex.
They are the reflected wavelengths of light. Each colour has its own specific frequency. When mashed together they are clear (if you do it with paint it is black), when bent through a prism, you see the individual colours.
Regards
John
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Simon Cork answered on 5 Nov 2018:
John’s right. On a basic level, colours are different wavelengths of light. Our eyes have specialised cells, called cones, that detect 3 colours of light: red, blue and green. If something is red, it will only activate those cones that respond to red. If something is purple, it will stimulate red and blue cones. Our brains then take that information and turn it into what we perceive as colour. Interestingly, it’s thought that not everyone sees colours the same. What I see as blue, you might see as green!
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Kelly Rushton answered on 13 Nov 2018:
Colours are also important in the way we perceive and navigate the world – they help us understand things and work things out. We process colours, as Simon says, with special cells at the back of our eyes, which send messages to a special part of our brain – the optical cortex – which then allows to understand the colours we are seeing.
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