Understanding Visible Light and Colour
Visible light isn't just one thing - it's actually made up of a whole spectrum of colours that your eyes can detect. Think of it like a rainbow: red light has the longest wavelength and lowest frequency, whilst violet has the shortest wavelength and highest frequency.
The colours in order are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet (remember "Roy G. Biv"!). White light is actually all these colours combined together, whilst black is simply the absence of light altogether.
The colour you see when looking at any object depends on two main factors: what light is hitting it and the object's properties. These work together to determine which light gets absorbed, reflected, or transmitted through the object.
Key Insight: The colour you see isn't actually "in" the object - it's the light bouncing off it that creates the colour in your brain!
Opaque objects (like a brick wall) don't let any light pass through them. Instead, they absorb some colours and reflect others back to your eyes. A blue football looks blue because it reflects blue light whilst absorbing all the other colours.