How are spectra and color related?

The mix of photon colors that reach our eyes determines what colors we see. We'll learn how to follow a source of light along its path to our eyes and consider how its spectrum relates to the color we see.

More about the Spectrum Tool

Spectrum Tool Guide. The tutorial (below) recaps key features of the online Spectrum Tool and introduces some new ones.

Spectrum Notebook. As you step through the tutorial, answer these questions:

  1. What is the relationship between the wavelength and energy of light?
  2. Why might it be useful to display a spectrum graph as a scatter plot instead of a line chart?
  3. What parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are not displayed on the Spectrum Tool?
Source:
Solar System — Mars Reflection
Brightness
Full-intensity spectrum backgroundTransparency increases or decreases based on chart intensity, hiding or revealing the background

This bar represents the spectrum image—what you see through a spectroscope when a light source is split by a diffraction grating into its component wavelengths (or colors, or energies).

Left axis ticks
Spectrum intensity vs wavelength chart
Bottom axis ticks
Wavelength (Microns)