Light and Color: The Origins and Applications

The human eye has been engineered to see objects by the means of one of the
fundamental aspects of this universe: light. When light hits an object, some of that light is
absorbed by the object, and the rest of the light waves are reflected back in all directions, some
of which go into the photoreceptors behind the vitreous humor in our eyes. Light is not the only
parameter with which perceptual experience can be defined, for light would be merely
electromagnetic waves passing through the air without color to provide the variety that
distinguishes one from another. But how does the white light from the sun, which contains all the
colors of the spectrum, transform into the bright green of grass in the meadow, or the dark hues
of brown of trees in the towering forests, or any of the other countless shades of color that are
witnessed by the eyes of man? More specifically, how is light of a certain given color absorbed
by an object and subsequently reflected as a different color?

Science coupled with industrial

knowledge has provided the answer in the form of a spectrophotometer, a device that functions
as a tool of measurement; it describes the intensity of light projected through it. This experiment
applies the study of the nature of light, the color spectrum, and the study of spectrophotometry
all in an effort to better understand the universe as we see it.

The spectrophotometer is an apparatus first invented by the American chemist Arnold O.

Beckman in 1939.

The machine has a near perfect accuracy of analysis it provided a

breakthrough for chemical analysis. The makeshift version of the spectrophotometer that will be
constructed in this experiment will more specifically target the colors contained within the light
reflected through a fixed object, with each component color being measured by intensity. A

computer program will be used to compensate for the makeshift spectrophotometer. Just recently
the PHOTON RT spectrophotometer has been developed and showcased at SPIE Photonics
West. This machine can analyze coatings in minutes without the need of recalibration.

To understand and define the perception of color, one must first understand the nature of
light.

Light has puzzled many physicists from across the ages.

For many eons, it was

indiscernible whether light was a particle or manifested as a wave. Isaac Newton was notably
one of the first to correctly theorize on this matter, though his conclusions were not entirely true.
He believed light to be made up of particles; that is, he thought light was something that was
constructed of atoms, his proof residing in the fact that light could only be either a particle or a
wave. His theory used the fact that a wave needs something to push against, that being the
quality that defines a wave as a wave. However, Newton presented that a light cannot be a wave
due to the fact that there is nothing to push against in a vacuum, thus concluding through
deductive reasoning that, if light cannot be a wave, it must be a particle (It is now known that
approximately 96% of the universe consists of dark matter, a sort of ether that serves as a
massless invisible substance).

Soon later another yet entirely contradictory theory was

formulated by the Italian physicist Francesco Maria Grimaldi in 1665 when he observed light
diffraction, a property indigenous to waves. The same conclusion was arrived at by the renown
physicist Christian Huygens in 1678, which further established Grimaldis theory and led to the
publication of Huygens principle.

Since then, these two theories competed for

acknowledgement as the the truth, with physicists Fresnel, Young, and James Clerk Maxwell
supporting the wave theory, the latter having also proved that light is a specifically

electromagnetic wave, with the infamous and undeniably genius Maxwells equations. These
equations were too much to ignore, and so the wave theory of light finally won over, at least until
the world-famous Albert Einstein investigated the matter. He revived the argument that light
was a particle in his light quantum theory, stating that the particle Newton first theorized about
was called a photon, and that the flow of these particles was a wave. In that sense, Einstein
resolved the century-old feud by proving that light was both a particle and a wave, while also,
and perhaps inadvertently, opening an exciting array of possibilities regarding the further study
of quantum mechanics.

Since Einstein established that light has a dual nature as both a particle and a wave, the
further study of light mechanics falls into the wave category, while the particle side of its nature
is reserved for more in-depth study of quantum physics. After Maxwells discovery of light
manifesting as an electromagnetic wave, the boundaries of science have expanded to include the
electromagnetic spectrum. This reveals that the light that our retinas can see consists of only a
miniature portion of the illustrious electromagnetic spectrum. The portion, referred to as the
visible light section, can be further divided into the colors seen in a rainbow, or through the
light reflected through a prism. Discounting the use of the basic physiological equipment all
humans are born with, color can be defined by its wavelength. For example, light of a
wavelength amounting to 650 nanometers would appear to the retina a pale, unsaturated hue of
red. However, once the spectrum of color is observed, one can quickly take note of the fact that
this spectrum does not expand wide enough to house all the possibilities of color. One is then
faced with a puzzling anomaly: How to account for the absentia of the hundreds of colors

manufactured by man and nature? To answer this question, another yet perhaps even more
trying question must be answered: how can color be defined? For instance, consider the white
light emanating from the sun. To label this specific color as white would be an injustice to
science. Rather, to specify the nature of this light, calculations must be made regarding the
quantity of light in each wavelength.

For informative purposes, sunlight contains high

concentrations of light at the green-blue end of the spectrum, meaning that those wavelengths
(~600-450 nm) have the most intensity. Intensity, by definition, is the quantity of energy
(measured in joules) that is received at a given area (a fixed amount, such as 5 square feet) per
second. This phenomenon, which also goes by the cognomen of irradiance, can be measured by
the following formula:
W m^-2 m^-1
(W = Watts, m = meters, m = sr = square radian (3-D angle))
In other words, to completely and properly supply all the parameters required for the
definition of color, one must present multiple quantities representative of the irradiance/intensity
of each and every wavelength present in the light sample. For experimental purposes, an
elongated but not necessarily infinite series of numerals would suffice as a veritable definition.

Moving on from the the basic parameters of color, one can now begin to understand the
qualities of color, which are illustrated most accurately in color mixing experiments. When the
words color and mixing go together, the most common picture to be summoned to the

pre-frontal cortex of the brain is the mixing of paints or acrylics. However, this image can be
deceptive when trying to understand the true qualities of color. Firstly, color must be thought of
not as physical but rather a quality of a physical object. The example of light is relatable both to
the reader and the topic at hand. As light is physical, think of color as a quality of that physical
object, just as luster and malleability are qualities of metals. When two colors of light are mixed,
they must be spectral colors, a color of a specific wavelength from the visible spectrum. These
spectral colors are exempt from the ruling that all colors contain multitudes of wavelengths.
Consider a spectral blue to be the pure blue of that exact shade and saturation. So when two
spectral colors are combined (this can be accomplished by shining that color onto a white
screen), they will unwaveringly produce the same result without fail. The combination of blue
and yellow, for example, creates white. However, the combination of red to green-blue will also
result in white. This experiment proves conclusively that any color can be obtained through
completely different combinations. Further experiments have had conclusions that eventually
evolved into the trichromatic theory of color, which is discussed in great detail by Michael I.
Sobel in his book Light. He states that any colored light source (a test source) whatsoever
may be matched by a suitable combination of the three colored lights-- which we will tentatively
call primary-- red,green, and blue. Furthermore, the definition of white is established as the
combination of the three primaries. It can also be achieved through the combination of any of
the primaries and the combination of the other two. For instance, red added with the result of
green and blue (a bright cyan) will produce white. The fact that these two colors add up to form
white was significant enough to coin them complementary colors To explain the colors
witnessed in our everyday lives, one must look toward light mechanics, but more specifically the

mixing of light and pigments. Pigments are qualitatively the opposite of light, in the way that
they absorb light rather than produce it. Therefore, while the mixing of lights is referred to as
additive mixing, the combination of pigments is called subtractive mixing. For example, a red
pigment absorbs every color of the spectrum except for red, which is then reflected into our eyes.
However, since most pigments are not pure, they are not as selective of the colors they absorb
and reflect. Thus the result of subtractive mixing is nigh impossible to predict exactly, though
the general location in the spectrum can be determined with some accuracy. While this may
prove to be a frustration for some chemists and physicists following the study of light and
quantum mechanics, to the careful observer, it provides a fantastical segway from science to art,
from deducing facts to exploring the unknown, from logic to beyond. In the words of Albert
Einstein, Logic can take you from Point A to Point B. Imagination can take you everywhere

Light is undeniably one of the building blocks of our universe, and color is the blueprint
that puts it all together for everyone to see and admire. There is a plethora of knowledge to
research and learn about, from whether light is a particle or a wave, along with
spectrophotometry and the study of color, to Einsteins work and publications of quantum
physics and quantum mechanics. Light is both literally and figuratively a candle in the otherwise
dark and menacing world. Not only is light a fascinating subject to explore, it gives us a deeper
understanding of how the universe functions.