Physics Chapter 28 Concept Check

What happens to an excited atom after it emits light?

After an excited atom emits light, it returns to its normal state.

How did Isaac Newton show that sunlight is composed of a mixture of all colors of the rainbow?

By passing a narrow beam of sunlight through a triangular-shaped glass prism, Newton showed that sunlight is composed of a mixture of all colors of the rainbow.

Why is the sunset red?

By the time a beam of light gets to the ground at sunset, all of the high frequency light has already been scattered. Only the lower frequencies remain, resulting in a red sunset.

What happens when you combine any color with its complementary color?

Every color has some complementary color that when added to it will produce white.

What determines the color of a transparent object?

The color of a transparent object is the color of the light it transmits.

What determines the color of an object?

The color of an opaque object is the color of the light it reflects

Why is the sky blue?

The sky is blue because its component particles scatter high-frequency light.

Why is water greenish-blue?

Water is greenish-blue because water molecules absorb red.

Which visible frequencies are absorbed by a mixture of paints or dyes?

When paints or dyes are mixed, the mixture absorbs all the frequencies each paint or dye in it absorbs.

Which visible frequencies make up the brightest part of sunlight?

Yellow-green light is the brightest part of sunlight.

Which three visible frequencies combine to form almost any color?

You can make almost any color by overlapping red, green, and blue light and adjusting the brightness of each color of light.