Lydia and Trudy

Title Frequencies Changing Color in Light

Abstract The motivation for this experiment, was to understand exactly how the human interprets and
perceives color depending on different frequencies. The question that we are investigating is
How do frequencies present in the light determine the way we see color? To get this question,
we had to do research and understand exactly what frequencies and wavelengths in color
mean, and which colors have a certain frequency. When starting the experiment, we had a good
idea of what the results would be, we assumed that the colors with higher frequencies would be
easier to see and identify, this turned out to be true. What we discovered in the experiment was
that violet, the color with the lowest frequency in the visible spectrum was the most difficult to
identify for our test subjects. Nearly all of them said that the color they had the most trouble
seeing was violet. Over all, this experiment showed us how the human eye perceives colors
depending on different frequencies.
Introduction The purpose of this experiment is to understand how frequencies determine the way we see
color in light. Frequency is the rate at which something occurs, in this case, the light waves. In
the article Visible Light and the Eye's Response they go over how the human eye is only
capable of seeing the visible spectrum, and only a small range of frequencies. The human eye
can currently only see between 400nm - 750nm because apparently the human eye developed
in water, which resulted in the narrow spectrum of vision. The visible spectrum includes the
colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. The Physics
Hypertextbook explains that light can be produced in two different ways, through
incandescence, which is created from hot matter, and luminescence which takes place when
excited electrons fall to lower energy levels. Different
frequencies will change the colors perceived by the human
eye because of differing wavelengths present. The colors we
see are the reflection of different wavelengths. Light and
color are completely independent in terms of the human
brain, but we associate them together, because they affect
the outcome of each other.

Question and Hypothesis How do frequencies present in the light determine the way we see color?

If the frequencies in light affect the color of light than humans will see different colors because of
the varying frequencies.
Methods & Materials Materials:
-Color Mixing Kit/Light Bulb
-Dark Room
-White surface to project light on
-5 Test Subjects
-Color Blind Test
To replicate this experiment, you will need light bulbs containing the following colors, red,
orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. 5 test subjects will be needed, all need to have the ability
to see color. Have each test subject take a color blind test before starting. Before the
experiment, you should know how many frequencies each color has, for example the color red
has 719.86 nanometers. When starting the experiment, a completely dark room is necessary,
eliminating all outside light sources that could change variables. Set up the light or lights so that
the person will only see one color at a time. Tell the subject what amount of frequencies that are
being projected, but dont tell them the color they should see. Ask them what color they see, and
record results, do this for each color. For each test subject, ask what color was the easiest to
identify, and the hardest to identify. Record results.
Results After the experiment, we found the colors red, green, and blue were the easiest to identify. We
know that red is the easiest to see because it has the highest level of frequencies. The color
that nearly all test subjects had the most trouble seeing was violet, due to this color having the
lowest level of frequencies. One of our test subjects identified orange as being the most difficult
color to see, this could be do to a slight difference in the color shade that we showed to others.
The easiest colors to see according to our experiment was red and green, with one test who
saw blue. One observations that we noticed was that the color shade needs to be consistent if
we were to get completely accurate data throughout the experiment.

Discussion The purpose of the experiment was to better understand how frequencies in color affect how the
human eye perceives color in light. Our hypothesis stated that changing frequencies would
result in different colors seen by the human eye. This proved to be right in our results. The
easiest identified colors were red and green because of the higher levels of frequencies in the
visible spectrum. The hardest color to identify was violet, due to the lowest frequencies present
within the visible spectrum. We knew that our hypothesis was correct, because our data was
fairly consist concerning the colors that people saw. Our data may not have been completely

accurate at times, seeing as we were using a color mixer, resulting in different shades of
orange, yellow, and violet. Therefore these three colors did not have consistent results, the test
subjects didnt always see the exact same colors. We know the subjects had the ability to
identify accurate color, because we had them take a test beforehand determining that they
werent color blind. To continue this experiment, we could have used more accurate lights that
had a consistent shade so we would have accurate results. Another way we could have
improved this was to look farther into changing the frequencies ourselves, so we could identify
what the highest and lowest frequencies the human eye could see.

Bibliography "Light Waves and Color." Light Waves and Color. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016."The Nature of Light."
The Physics Hypertextbook. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.