How Do You Get The Color White?

(Color Wheel)

Objective:

The student will have an understanding that the eye takes in three major colors and that all the colors of light (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet) mixed together create white light.

Materials:

Spinning machine

pre-made discs of blue & green, red & blue, and red & green

Computer with Microsoft Excel

Procedure:

1. Show the students the disc with blue and green and ask them what color they think they will see if we spin it.

2. Spin the disc and discuss the color they see. (should be cyan).

3. Next, place the red and blue disc onto the spinner and ask the students what color they think they’ll see. Test it and discuss. (red & blue should create magenta)

4. Place the red and green disc onto the spinner and repeat steps 1 and 2.

5. Have a discussion as to why we are seeing the colors we see. (colors are mixing, etc.)

6. Ask the students to think about how they might create a disc to make us see white.

7. Have the students create a pie chart on Microsoft Excel that they think will create the color white when spun around.

8. Test the student’s discs and discuss that the eyes see three main colors of light; red, blue, and green and the mixture of these three colors gives us all the colors we see including white.

Hint: To make white light (or nearly white light) make a disc sectioned in thirds and colored with green, pink, and blue highlighting markers.