Title:

Caring in full color

Abstract:
Garnet and Nat have always been amazed by color and the impact it has on their lives.
Color combination and light being accepted through people's eyes, has fascinated many. We
decided to define and measure the angle of departure of different colors of light when they pass
through an opening. This dispersion would change from color to color because each color has a
different wavelength. Red has the longest wavelength 700 nanometers and purple/violet has a
wavelength of 400 nanometers, the shortest of any color.
We would test 9 different colors of light, no color, red, orange, yellow, green, light blue,
dark blue, pink and purple. We built a frame out of wood and hot glue. We secured a studio light
to the frame which would funnel through the opening. To measure the angle of light, we used a
protractor and positioned the frame next to a wall to see where the light started. We tested in a
dark environment so that other light would not interfere with the light from the opening. We also
kept the position of the light the same throughout testing to not manipulate the results of our
experiment.
We found that the longer wavelength a color has has smaller the angle of dispersion
was. All of our results and findings are explained in depth in the results section below. We found
some interesting info about the color pink, because it was an outlier in our tests. We tested 8
colors with no color and every combination of color together, for a total of 71 tests. The tests
took us around 2 hours and 30 minutes, we enjoyed this experiment and found some interesting
things within light.
Introduction:
The purpose of this experiment is to find out the characteristics of light when funneled
through a small opening. We wanted to know if the color of light would change the angles of the
light coming out of the opening. As red light has the longest wavelength and purple has the
shortest, we were curious to find out if wavelength would indeed affect the way light would
disperse and travel through the opening. As explained by NASA, the wavelengths of all visible
light are very small, between 400 and 700 nanometers in length. With that said, we wont be
measuring the wavelength, but we will be monitoring and measuring the angle of departure of
the light with a protractor.
Question and Hypothesis:
If the color of light affects the angle of dispersion then colors closer to purple disperse a
larger angle because purple has the shortest wavelength of any color.

Methods & Materials:

We constructed a frame out of the wood approximately the size of the top, sides and
bottom of the studio light. Once finished we closed in the frame so that there was a square
opening. Then we cut wood to fit the around the round studio light since the box is square. After
correctly screwing it all together and measured appropriately, you can now freely put gels in
front of the lights to manipulate its color. Mount 2 protractors on the foundation in order to
measure the angle of departure of different colors of light. In our experiment we are attempting
to find the angle of different colors of light and we dont want other light interfering. In order to
control this variable we tested everything in the dark to limit interference with other light. We
kept the amount of light the same as well as the position of the studio lamp. The only variable
we changed was the color of the light, which is the basis of our experimentation. To test we
changed the gels and measured the angle of departure using the protractors mounted to our
foundation, and then recorded our results.
Our experiment involves acquiring the following materials:
8 Colored Light Gel 30x30cm
1 Studio Light
Hot Glue
1 Saw
2 Protractor

Results:
Our experiment found some very interesting information, about color and how different
colors disperse. We found that red, having the longest wavelength, has the largest angle of
departure at 16 degrees. On the other hand we see purple, with the shortest wavelength, and
the smallest angle of departure at 44 degrees. Every color was 4 degrees more than the last
color, except for one color, pink which was the outlier in our set of data. For example orange
was 4 degrees more than its previous color red, and green lightblue was 4 degrees more than
green. We found this pattern to be very interesting and we believe this constant incline of 4
degrees is because of reds longest wavelength and purples shorest. When adding two gels
together we found that the angle of dispersion was the median of the two colors we combined.
For example the colors green and purple had a angle of 36 degrees. This is because the
median of 44 degrees (purple) and 28 degrees (green) is 36 degrees. We found that the color
pink is an outlier, because it does not follow our rule of being 4 degrees more than its previous
color (dark blue). We believe this is because humans perceive pink to be a combination of dark
blue and purple, but it is actually a combination of many colors humans cannot see. Its angle of
dispersion is 60 degrees so any color that is combined with it has a significantly larger angle
then it would without pink. Purple continues to follow this rule however, if pink had grown by 4
degrees it would be 40 degrees and purple does not realize it is an outlier so it adds 4 to the
previous angle (pink-40).

No

Red

Orange Yellow

Green

Light

Dark

Pink

Purple

Color

Blue

Blue

No
Color

11

16

20

24

28

32

36

60

44

Red

16

16

18

20

22

24

26

38

30

Orange

20

18

20

22

24

26

28

40

32

Yellow

24

20

22

24

26

28

30

42

34

Green

28

22

24

26

28

30

32

44

36

Light
Blue

32

24

26

28

30

32

34

46

38

Dark
Blue

36

26

28

30

32

34

36

48

40

Pink

60

38

40

42

44

46

48

60

52

Purple

44

30

32

34

36

38

40

52

44

Discussion:
This experiment was done to test whether or not light of different colors dispersed from a
funneled area in different angles. Our expected results were that if the shorter the wavelength of
light a smaller area of dispersion would occur. The results that we did get were precisely that.
Red, which has the longest wavelength, had a larger area of dispersion. Purple with the shortest
wavelength, had the smallest area of dispersion except for pink which was the outlier of the
data. Pink had a dispersion area of 60 degrees while purple had one of 44 degrees. As the data
from the experiment shows when the color of a shorter wavelength is shined, its area of
dispersion is 4 degrees less than that of the previous color. We dont, however, have a logical
explanation for why pink had a smaller area of dispersion than purple.
The significance of our results isnt very big. We just discovered for ourselves that the
color of light affects physical properties of the light. Longer wavelengths yield a larger area of
dispersion than shorter wavelengths. A place of large uncertainty, however, would come from
our test with pink. It ended up being a total outlier and for no reason we could make sense of.

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