- #1
quozzy
- 15
- 0
Colour "Chords"
Hi,
couldn't think of a better title, but it turns out to be rather fitting for what I'm about to describe, I think...
I thought of this shortly after being introduced to my first lab involving a spectrometer. We perceive different wavelengths of light in the visible spectrum as different colours, each wavelength associated with a distinct corresponding colour, just as we perceive different wavelengths of sound as distinct pitches.
In sound, however, waves can be combined to form, say, chords, or other combinations of multiple pitches, which are instantly recognisable as such. Very rarely in nature do we come across a perfect sinusoidal sound wave with only one pitch.
If this analogy holds true for light, it would seem to imply that there exist colour 'chords', so to speak, that are combinations of light at different wavelengths, and thus do not correspond to one single wavelength. This confuses me, because I've always taken for granted that any colour the eye can see can be expressed using a single wavelength.
So my question is this: am I right in assuming that these colour 'chords' exist, or does a combination of colours have a single wavelength that can somehow be derived from its component wavelengths? (E.g. say you mix yellow and blue light of equal intensity. Does the resulting green light have a wavelength that is the average of the red and blue lights' wavelengths, or can it only be expressed as a combination of both?)
I hope I've expressed myself clearly enough. Any help is appreciated.
Cheers,
-q
Hi,
couldn't think of a better title, but it turns out to be rather fitting for what I'm about to describe, I think...
I thought of this shortly after being introduced to my first lab involving a spectrometer. We perceive different wavelengths of light in the visible spectrum as different colours, each wavelength associated with a distinct corresponding colour, just as we perceive different wavelengths of sound as distinct pitches.
In sound, however, waves can be combined to form, say, chords, or other combinations of multiple pitches, which are instantly recognisable as such. Very rarely in nature do we come across a perfect sinusoidal sound wave with only one pitch.
If this analogy holds true for light, it would seem to imply that there exist colour 'chords', so to speak, that are combinations of light at different wavelengths, and thus do not correspond to one single wavelength. This confuses me, because I've always taken for granted that any colour the eye can see can be expressed using a single wavelength.
So my question is this: am I right in assuming that these colour 'chords' exist, or does a combination of colours have a single wavelength that can somehow be derived from its component wavelengths? (E.g. say you mix yellow and blue light of equal intensity. Does the resulting green light have a wavelength that is the average of the red and blue lights' wavelengths, or can it only be expressed as a combination of both?)
I hope I've expressed myself clearly enough. Any help is appreciated.
Cheers,
-q