Re: pinhole color of particles

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From: pauld@exploratorium.edu
Date: Mon Jan 28 2002 - 21:09:37 PST 

Message-Id: <200201290509.g0T59Xp05954@isaac.exploratorium.edu>
From: pauld@exploratorium.edu
Subject: Re: pinhole color of particles
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 21:09:33 US/Pacific

Hi Mike
Good answer

Color is a perception of the human eye and brain, without a human there is no
yellow!

We often call light that will trigger a human yellow perception "yellow light"

and we talk about particles which reflect yellow light as "yellow particles".

This works great when we are dealing with rubber balls.

It might even work for atoms, for example a single sodium atom sitting in the
darkness and excited by electron collisions will emit "yellow light" since the
electrons around the atom change energy levels and give off light that will
trigger the yellow perception in a human.

The electrons in the pigment molecules of a rubber ball change energy levels
and absorb blue light reflecting red and green light which humans see as yellow
so we say it is a yellow ball.

But a lone particle like an electron, or a proton by itself has no emission
lines or absorption bands in the visible spectrum. And so subatomic particles
are colorless.

Paul D

> Is it possible for atomic particles to have a color? An 8th grade
> student stumped me on this question. I responded by saying they are
> too small to reflect any noticable light or to separate light into
> individual color wavelengths. I think....
>
> Mike Schulist
> Miller Creek Middle School
>
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