Conceptual Physics Alive: Light and Color includes a digital video and questions set with answers.

Observe Paul Hewitt teach in a classroom with real students, using engaging demonstrations and artwork. In this video, the electromagnetic nature of light and the reason its speed changes when passing through transparent materials are explained. Several demonstrations illustrate the addition of different colors of light. Finally, the colors of everyday things such as the sky, sunset, and ocean are discussed. Segment length: 40 minutes

Light and Color Includes:

• Begins with an electromagnetic explanation of light waves.
• Light frequency range: from red, then orange ... to violet, and then to ultraviolet.
• X rays: high-frequency E&M radiation.
• Prism is shown and leads to discussion of how light slows down when passing through a transparent material.
• Toy soldier analogy of light passing through glass.
• Explanation of different colors traveling at different average speeds through transparent materials.
• Graph of frequency versus brightness shown on a chalkboard.
• The brightest color from the sun is yellow-green.
• Examples of yellow-green fire engines and street lights.
• Red, green, and blue parts of the spectrum are shown on the graph.
• Lightbox shows the overlapping of red, green, and blue to produce white. Complementary colors are also shown and discussed.
• Cyan color of seawater explained.
• Demonstration of three lamps, red, green, and blue, mounted on lecture table shine in succession on Hewitt to produce beautiful shadows.
• Lightbox shows that sky blue and sunset orange are complementary colors.
• Why sky is blue is explained in terms of scattering.
• Tuning forks at opposite ends of the lecture table illustrate light from the sun traveling to the earth's atmosphere. Hewitt with assistant Meidor shows why sunsets are orange.
• Chalkboard explanation of blue sky and orange sunsets.
• Whiteness of clouds.
• Green flash.
• Bluish color of distant dark mountains.
• Yellowish color of distant bright mountains.

Next-Time Question: Why do we look upward and see a blue sky, while astronauts in orbit looking down through the same air don't see the blueness of the sky at all? (SEE RESOURCES TAB FOR MORE)

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