Light Stick, Firefly, and Color TV

Abstract

Light and color are perhaps the most important factors in visual arts and entertainment. Paintings cannot be done without color. This color is provided by pigments, chemicals that absorb light in the visible range. All natural colors, green leaves, and flowers etc., are based on the same principles of absorption of light by pigment molecules. The absorption of light has been talked about in several places in this book (Chaps. 10 and 20). The basis is that the energy of a molecule takes distinct values (quantized) and the molecule will absorb a light that has a frequency (or wavelength) that matches the energy gap between those distinct levels. This is the end of the story in short. And that is “physics.” Physics is concerned with only how a phenomenon occurs.