Colour Properties

Each colour has its own properties with its own wavelength and frequency.

Although white could be said to be a colour, it is generally not included in the scientific spectrum as it is in fact made up of all the colours of the spectrum, but it is often referred to being a colour.

Isaac Newton proved that white light is indeed made up of colours by passing natural sunlight through a glass prism which in result projected a rainbow of colours on a surface.

He then proceeded to use a second glass prism and combined the light from the first prism (which split the suns rays into sperate colours) to produce white light once again. Thus proving white light (ie the sun) contains colour.

The tables below show each colour and its relative property.

Key:

Frequency = Terahertz (one trillion cycles per second)

Wavelength = Nanometers

One meter equals 1,000,000,000 nanometers. One nanometer is about the length of ten atoms in a row.

Complementary colour = the complementary colour associated with each colour

Figures shown here are approximate

Violet
The colour violetWavelength425 - 400 nm
Frequency700 - 790 thz
Complementary colourYellow
Indigo
The colour indigoWavelength450 - 425 nm
Frequency670 - 700 thz
Complementary colourOrange
Blue
The colour blueWavelength500 - 450 nm
Frequency670 - 600 thz
Complementary colourRed
Green
The colour greenWavelength570 - 500 nm
Frequency580 - 530 thz
Complementary colourRed
Yellow
The colour yellowWavelength590 - 570 nm
Frequency530 - 510 thz
Complementary colourViolet
Orange
The colour orangeWavelength610 - 590 nm
Frequency510 - 480 thz
Complementary colourIndigo
Red
The colour redWavelength750 - 610 nm
Frequency480 - 405 thz
Complementary colourBlue