PRIMARY AND COMPLEMENTARY COLORS 273 



Reflected light. Opaque objects. The reason why most 

 objects are visible to us is because of the light diffusely re- 

 flected from them. A white object, such as a sheet of paper, 

 a whitewashed fence, or a tablecloth, absorbs little of the light 

 which falls upon it, but reflects nearly all, thus producing the 

 sensation of white. A red carpet absorbs the light rays inci- 

 dent upon it except the red rays, and these it reflects to the eye. 



Any substance or object which reflects none of the rays which 

 fall upon it, but absorbs all, appears black. Coal and tar and 

 soot are good illustrations of opaque objects which absorb all 

 the light that falls upon them. 



Primary and complementary colors. Strange and unexpected 

 facts await us at every turn in science. If a cardboard disk, 

 painted one third red, one third green, and one third blue, is 

 rapidly rotated, its color is white. Moreover, by the mixture 

 of these three colors in various quantities, any color of the 

 spectrum, such as yellow, indigo, or orange, may be obtained. 

 Red, green, and blue are called primary or essential hues, be- 

 cause all known tints of color may be produced by mixing these 

 lights in the proper proportions ; for example, purple is obtained 

 by blending red and blue, and orange by blending blue and 

 green. 



White can be obtained by blending certain colors in pairs : 

 blue and yellow lights blend into white ; and green and purple 

 when mixed also give white. Two colors which blend to pro- 

 duce white are called complementary colors. Complementary 

 colors are the greatest possible contrast to each other and some- 

 times give pleasing effects when used near each other in deco- 

 rations. Ordinarily, however, striking contrasts in color are 

 not desirable in either clothes or household furnishings. 



As every one knows, combining lights is very different from 

 mixing paints. While blue and yellow lights combine to pro- 

 duce white, blue and yellow paints combine to produce green. 



