The Spectrum

TV Color Perception

What it shows:

The full spectrum of colors (including white) in a television picture is produced by the additive mixing of only three colors: red, green, and blue.

How it works:

In a color television tube, three separate electron beams are focused so as to strike the appropriate phosphor dot on the screen. By looking at the television screen under considerable magnification, one can clearly see that there are only three phosphors which are stimulated by the electron beam(s). The apparatus is diagrammed below.

...

Read more about TV Color Perception
Color Mixing

What it shows:

All colors can be created from a combination of the three primary colors of red, green and blue. The secondary colors of cyan, magenta and yellow are created from a combination of two primaries, and white light is perceived from the combination of all three.

...

Read more about Color Mixing
Infra-Red Projector

What it shows:

Like visible light, invisible infra-red radiation can be refracted by lenses to produce an image on a screen. Indeed, a slide projector designed for visible light is used as the imaging device; a heat- sensitive screen makes the invisible IR image visible.

How it works:

Our IR source is a 1000 watt "lantern slide" projector 1 from which we have removed the special heat-absorbing glass in the condenser assembly. The slide to be imaged is some kind of lettering, like the name of the course (Science A-29...

Read more about Infra-Red Projector
Radiometer

Detection of IR radiation from hair dryer and/or special IR source.

What it Shows:

Detection of infra-red radiation by the rotation of a paddle-wheel vane inside a low pressure flask.

How it Works:

A radiometer consists of a partially evacuated flask containing a four bladed vane (see figure 1). One side of each blade is a matt black, the other silver. The black surface, being a better absorber and radiator of heat, warms the air above its surface more than the silver. The resulting higher kinetic energy of these air...

Read more about Radiometer
Continuous Spectrum

What it shows:

White light is shown, รก la Newton's demonstration of dispersion by a prism, to be composed of a continuous spectrum of colors.

How it works:

A large brilliant spectrum is produced by using a 1 kW carbon arc light source 1 with adjustable slit, a "fast" f/0.9 imaging lens, 2 and a highly dispersive in-line prism. 3 The spectrum easily fills a two meter wide screen with vibrant colors. An alternative (more compact) setup consists of a Beseler slide projector 4 which...

Read more about Continuous Spectrum