From: Nasif Iskander (iskander@sfuhs.org)
Date: Tue Jan 29 2002 - 04:59:15 PST
From: "Nasif Iskander" <iskander@sfuhs.org> Subject: RE: pinhole color of particles Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 07:59:15 -0500 Message-ID: <EGEGLIAFCPHHANEHCLHDKEEKCBAA.iskander@sfuhs.org>
True! Subatomic particles are certainly too small to have real color.
There is, however, a property of matter that is responsible for strong force
interactions (the force that binds quarks together to form protons and
neutrons, and sticks protons and neutrons together to build nucleii), that
is referred to as "color". The reason the word "color" was chosen for this
property was that there were three types of this property, and the primary
colors were simply a convenient way with which to label it. Thus people
refer to "red", "blue", or "green" quarks, for example. They aren't really
colors, though, and they have nothing to do with light. Perhaps this is
what your student was referring to.
Nasif Iskander
San Francisco University High School
>-----Original Message-----
>From: pinhole@exploratorium.edu [mailto:pinhole@exploratorium.edu]On
>Behalf Of pauld@exploratorium.edu
>Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 4:10 PM
>To: Pinhole Listserv
>Subject: Re: pinhole color of particles
>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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