Nava, is the colour of that bond so because it blocks all light and only lets through that colour. Or is it because it absorbs that colour, has a change and then spits out a photon of the right wavelength? (isn’t that last one phosphorescense? sp? or is it fluorescense?)
This is extremely fascinating. As an artist, I love colour, and I enjoy physics and chemistry too.
I just checked the Toronto Public Library for Nassau’s book, but they only have it in the reference stacks, so I can’t actually borrow it. Bother.
So a dye is molecules that spread through the thing being dyed, and a pigment is little coloured chunks that cover the thing being pigmented, and are held on by a binder (basically, transparent glue)?
Gee - thanks guys!
Kinda jammed up here at work today and tomorrow, but I definitely have some stuff to think in my free time.
This may be a book for all you dyed in the wool color fans:“The Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage and the Quest For the Color of Desire”
A very interesting book about the struggle to find a superior red dye and the effect of the discovery of Cochineal dye in Central America.
The color “of” a bond/substance is the color it would absorb and return. If the return does not involve chemical changes but does require a long time, then you get phosphorescence. If it doesn’t take a long time, you just see the object in that color. Note that when it comes to color absorption we’re talking all the time of “light as particle”; “light as wave” is useful for other stuff (like “why do some objects shine when struck by light but others don’t?”)
Hint: I learned which one was phosphorescence and which fluorescence by remembering that the tubes in the kitchen are fluorescent. Fluorescence is the emmision of light by electrically-excited gas at low pressure.