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Home Minds On Light Waves and Colors Mission LC3 Primary Colors of Light Help Help 2

Mission LC3 Primary Colors of Light

The Question

When the three primary colors of light are mixed with equal intensities, the result will be the color ____.

Physics Rules

Primary Colors of Light:
Any three colors (or frequencies) of light that produce white light when combined with the correct intensity are called primary colors of light. The most common set of primary colors is red (R), green (G) and blue (B). White (W) light is produced when red, green and blue light are mixed or added together with equal intensity.

Don't be Fooled

Many students of physics suffer a little mental anguish when hearing from their physics teacher that the three primary colors of light mix together to produce white light. After all, it doesn't seem to be consistent with what they experienced in art class. In art class, you mixed primary colors of paints together - and the result wasn't white. But don't be fooled! In physics, we discuss mixing lights together. You haven't done that before (at least you aren't aware of having done it). Your art experience was correct; but that was the mixing of paints. Now you get to learn something new; you get to learn about mixing light.

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