Why Plants are Green
| Light can be refracted, absorbed, or reflected by an object. Refraction happens when a light ray traveling through air hits a different material. When the light ray hits the new material, its speed and direction will change. This can cause some things to look strange. For example, this happens if we look at a pencil through a glass of water. |
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The color that we see when we look at an object is the color of light that the object reflects. Objects that are white reflect all of the colors of the spectrum and absorbing none. Objects that are black absorb all colors of the spectrum and reflect none. So what does that mean about all of the other colors we see? For example, when we look at Polly in a dark room with a flashlight, she appears to be red in color. Polly and other strawberries reflect red light and absorb the other colors of the spectrum.
If we put a blue light bulb in our flashlight and shine that blue light on Polly in a dark room, what color do you think she will be?
Polly will appear black. When you shine only blue light on Polly, there is no red light for her to reflect. So she appears to have "lost" her color. You can try this at home with apples and bananas using colored cellophane paper and a flashlight.
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