Colour Facts

17 Interesting Facts About Colors

• The word colour comes from the Latin word colos which means cover or covering.
• Astronomers use the colour of stars to determine their size. The bigger the star, the more bluish it looks. And the smaller the star the warmer (red/yellow) it appears.
• Black holes are stars which are very dense and hence do not allow light (and hence colour) to escape.
• Each colour has a different wavelength. For example the wavelength for blue is 475 nm (nano meter) and the wavelength for red is 650 nm.
• Chromatics, chromatography, colorimetry are words that are used to describe the science of colour.
• The human eye distinguishes colour based on the sensitivity of cells in the retina to light of various wavelengths.
• Shades of a colour are created by adding black to the base colour.
• Tints of a colour are created by adding white to the base colour.
• In general blue, green and purple are considered cool colors while yellow, orange and red hues are considered warm.
• Complementary colors are those which exist opposite each other on the color wheel. They tend to look very vibrant when used together making each colour look very noticeable.
• Analogous colours exist next to each other on the colour wheel. When used together they give a very pleasant effect.
• Black, white, gray and some beige & brown shades are called neutral colours or earth tones. These colours do not show up on the colour wheel.
• The RBG colour model is an additive model used in computer monitors, TVs and mobiles.
• The CMYK colour model is a subtractive one and is used in printing.
• The ability of animals to take on the colour of their environment is known as camouflage.
• Iridescence is the property of certain surfaces that appear to change colour as the angle of view or the angle of light reflecting on it changes. Soap bubbles and the inside of an abalone shell are examples of iridescence.
• A dichoric material is one which causes visible light to be split up into distinct beams of different wavelengths or one in which light rays having different polarisations are absorbed by different amounts. You can observe this when you press a LCD display with your fingers.

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