White Light (7.02)
As discussed earlier, white light is a precise balance of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. We recognize this when we see a rainbow or light passing through a prism. In refraction, as it occurs in transparent diamonds, the light components are separated and displayed as the colors just mentioned. What about the intrinsic color of an object (such as a colored diamond)? An object’s color comes from its ability (or lack of it), to absorb and re-emit the various colors of the spectrum. For example a red apple will absorb the non-red related colors which are green, blue, and violet, and re-emit the red-related colors which are red, orange and yellow. The exact shade of the apple’s color will depend on how much of each of these spectral colors is absorbed or returned.
