Mar 20 2008
Physics of Colour
Electromagnetic radiation is characterized by its wavelength (or frequency) and its intensity. When the wavelength is within the visible spectrum (the range of wavelengths humans can perceive, approximately from 380 nm to 740 nm), it is known as “visible light”.
Most light sources emit light at many different wavelengths; a source’s spectrum is a distribution giving its intensity at each wavelength. Although the spectrum of light arriving at the eye from a given direction determines the colour sensation in that direction, there are many more possible spectral combinations than colour sensations. In fact, one may formally define a colour as a class of spectra that give rise to the same colour sensation, although such classes would vary widely among different species, and to a lesser extent among individuals within the same species. In each such class the members are called metamers of the colour in question.
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