What gives thing color?

Question

I was just wondering, what gives things color? Why is the sky blue? grass green? soil brown?

Does it have to do something with light?

Answer 1

Some objects, called self-luminous, are visible because they emit light themselves. In  that case, the color is due to the spectral distribution - that is, the mix of wavelengths of light emitted. Sodium vapor lights, for instance, emit yellow light, neon lights reddish.

Other objects which do not emit light can be seen if light from some other source reflects off them. Their color is due to the amount of each incident wavelength that is absorbed. A red cloth, for instance, absorbs most of the green and blue light that falls on it and reflects the red.

Answer 2

I don't know the details, but what gives things color is how light bounces off of it.  That's why in a pitch dark room, everything looks black or is "colorless".

Answer 3

Every thing absorbs colour from the light, but there is always one colour that is reflected from that thing which is the colour you can see.

eg, if i had a blue bucket, that bucket absorbs every other colour besides blue, we are just seein the reflection.

Answer 4

God

Answer 5

Blue sky-water in the atmosphere

green grass-chlorophyl

soil brown--well it's dirt? don't know about soil for sure

Answer 6

I love how when people don't know the answer, they just say "it's god".  That tells you a lot about why we invented god in the first place.  (lots of thumbs down ratings coming my way)

Anyway, different materials absorb different frequencies of light.  So when light travels through the atmosphere, for example, the blue part of the spectrum is mostly untouched.  The atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, and nitrogen absorbs less blue than other colors.

Answer 7

when the earth was created god dropped a pack of crayola.

Answer 8

i think you would be asking the same thing if every thing was black and white its just the way it is

Answer 9

Yes, it definitley does have something to do with light!

Although they may be obvious, I'd just like to say some things about light. Firstly, different 'colours' of light have their colours by virtue of having different wavelengths, and the cells in the retinas of our eyes combined with the part of our brain concerned with vision interpret these varying wavelengths into colours as we know them. Secondly, any colour of light that we as humans see is a mixture of one or more of the following 3 primary light colours: red, green, and blue. White light (sunlight) has equal proportions of all 3 of these wavelength colours.

Pigments (chemical compounds) are typically what give things 'colour', and it is the way in which light 'reacts' to these pigments that allows us to see the colour of an object.

In the instance of grass, for example, the pigment chlorophyll absorbs the red and blue wavelengths of light and reflects the green (which is why we see grass as green - green wavelengths of light are what enter our eyes). The soil is brown because it has pigments that reflect a mixture (unequal) of the 3 wavelength colours (with red being the predominant colour of light reflected, I assume). Yellow flowers have pigments that reflect red and green wavelengths.

Hope that gives you a fair idea of what gives things colour! :)

Answer 10

Yes, different frequencies of light are different colors. Objects that are a specific color reflect only a certain color and absorb all the rest. So grass absorbs all colors of light except green, which is recieved by our eyes. The sky is blue because all of the blue and purple light from the sun spreads out in the atmosphere, and we average it out as blue.

Answer 11

If light bounces off an object like say your red shirt, it means that your shirt absorbs other colours in the spectrum of visible light and as the red part of the spectrum is the only part that is not absorbed ( it is reflected ), it can bounce off the shirt and hit the retina of your eye where you perceive it as red.

In the case of the blue sky, the situation here is due to light filtering - the atmosphere absorbs or blocks ( filters ) out other colours of the spectrum but lets blue light through the atmosphere. Where it hits your eye etc etc.

Answer 12

Yes. It has EVERYTHING to do with light. everything you see has everything to do with light. No light means zero visibility., If there is no light we won't be able too see anything. Color depends on the king of lighting., For example: Your in a enclosed room with white light, the color of the shirt you wear is red therefore light bounces back to your eyes and what you see is red. But if the light in the room is yellow then our shirt should appear orange. (Red + Yellow makes Orange). White shoes would appear white in white light ang yellow in yellow light.

Answer 13

im not positive but i think i remember in science like somthing is green because every color but green gets absorbed by the object and only green light is bouncing off. somthin like that...

Answer 14

something to do with the frequency of the light waves.  i think.  i didn't pay much attention in that class.

Answer 15

pigment

Answer 16

Wow I really like this question I want to know this to.

Answer 17

whatever the thing is composed of soil is brown becuz of the diffrent minerls and rocks in it grass green becuz of chemical compounds ocen blueish becuse of reflekted light from the sky light reflexs of the certian things and it shows the colors to our eyes

Answer 18

It's the way light bounces off objects.

It's Science.

I hate Science

[6th grade Science]

Answer 19

its how god created it.

I dont know really

What is life?? Ever that of that?