Introduction:

Thomas Young, in the early 1800s, showed that a broad range of colors can be generated by mixing three beams of light, provided their frequencies were widely separately. When three such beams combine to produce white light, they are called primary colors.

There is no single unique set of these primaries, nor do they have to be made up of single (monochromatic) colors.

The three components (emitted by three phosphors) that generate the whole gamut of hues as seen on a color TV set are Red, Green, and Blue. These are the primary colors.

Looking through a colored window or cloth is another story. Yellow cloth, paper, dye, paint, and ink all selectively absorb blue, and reflect what remains - yellow. And that is why they appear yellow.

When dealing with pigments (paints), the primary pigments are yellow, magenta (a light violet color), and cyan (a bluish-green hue).

This Java applet let you play with mixing light beams and paint pigments.

Instructions:

1. Load up the Java Lab from the web site shown above.

2. Click the right mouse button twice quickly to switch between two different modes:
a. Mixing light beams (black background)
b. Mixing paint pigments (white background)

3. Set the screen for mixing light beams.

4. Click the left mouse button and drag one of the colored ovals to move it around.

5. Determine what colors are obtained when two of the ovals intersect each other. Do this for all combinations of two ovals.

6. What color is obtained when the three ovals intersect each other?

7. Set the screen for mixing paint pigments.

8. Repeat steps 4 through 6 for paint pigments.

9. Finally, write the report telling what results were obtained in this experiment with your favorite word processor or text editor and submit is to the instructor.

Use the "Sample Laboratory Report" as a guide in preparing your lab report.

Any problems - please e-mail me. Also if you have any complaints, comments, suggestions, or kudos concerning this experiment, please e-mail me. It won't help your class, but I will take them into consideration for the next time this course is offered

Web Site:

http://www.phy.ntnu.edu.tw/java/image/rgbColor.html OR
http://users.hal-pc.org/~clement/Simulations/Mixing%20Colors/rgbColor.html

(Either website will work for this lab-please use whichever one loads for you!)

Attachment:- colors_java1.zip