Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Violet is the color of light at the short wavelength end of the visible spectrum. It is one of the seven colors that Isaac Newton labeled when dividing the spectrum of visible light in 1672. Violet light has a wavelength between approximately 380 and 435 nanometers. [2] The color's name is derived from the Viola genus of flowers. [3] [4]
Purple is a color similar in appearance to violet light. In the RYB color model historically used in the arts, purple is a secondary color created by combining red and blue pigments. In the CMYK color model used in modern printing, purple is made by combining magenta pigment with either cyan pigment, black pigment, or both.
Luminous energy is related to radiant energy by the expression = / ¯ (). Here λ {\displaystyle \lambda } is the wavelength of light, and y ¯ ( λ ) {\displaystyle {\overline {y}}(\lambda )} is the luminous efficiency function , which represents the eye's sensitivity to different wavelengths of light.
This color, electric purple, is precisely halfway between violet and magenta and thus fits the artistic definition of purple. [ 15 ] Using additive colors such as those on computer screens, it is possible to create a much brighter purple than with pigments where the mixing subtracts frequencies from the component primary colors.
Another example is incandescent light bulbs, which emit only around 10% of their energy as visible light and the remainder as infrared. A common thermal light source in history is the glowing solid particles in flames , but these also emit most of their radiation in the infrared and only a fraction in the visible spectrum.
Evidence indicates that what Newton meant by "indigo" and "blue" does not correspond to the modern meanings of those color words. Comparing Newton's observation of prismatic colors with a color image of the visible light spectrum shows that "indigo" corresponds to what is today called blue, whereas his "blue" corresponds to cyan. [12] [13] [14]
Characteristic spectral power distributions (SPDs) for an incandescent lamp (left) and a fluorescent lamp (right). The horizontal axes are wavelengths in nanometers, and the vertical axes show relative intensity in arbitrary units. Light sources and illuminants may be characterized by their spectral power distribution (SPD).
Photon energy is the energy carried by a single photon. The amount of energy is directly proportional to the photon's electromagnetic frequency and thus, equivalently, is inversely proportional to the wavelength. The higher the photon's frequency, the higher its energy. Equivalently, the longer the photon's wavelength, the lower its energy.