When it comes to mixing colors of light, the combination of magenta and yellow light produces a different result compared to mixing magenta and yellow pigments. This article will examine what happens when magenta light and yellow light are mixed together.
How Light Colors Work
Unlike pigments, light colors work by adding different wavelengths of light together. The primary colors of light are red, green and blue. When all three are mixed together evenly, they produce white light. The secondary colors are created by mixing two primary colors – for example, red and green make yellow.
When we look at a color of light, we are seeing the wavelengths of light that are being emitted or reflected into our eyes. Here is a quick overview of the primary and secondary colors of light:
| Primary Colors | Red | Green | Blue |
| Secondary Colors | Cyan | Magenta | Yellow |
Cyan is made by mixing green and blue light. Magenta is made from red and blue. Yellow comes from red and green.
So when it comes to light, the primary colors are red, green and blue – not red, yellow and blue like when mixing pigments. This difference affects what happens when you mix magenta and yellow light together.
What is Magenta Light?
Magenta light is made by combining wavelengths of red light and blue light. Red light has a wavelength of around 700 nanometers, while blue is around 450 nanometers.
When these two wavelengths strike our eyes at the same time, our visual system interprets it as magenta – a non-spectral color that cannot be produced by a single wavelength of light.
So magenta light stimulates both the red and blue color receptors in our eyes equally, without stimulating the green receptors. This gives us the perception of magenta.
What is Yellow Light?
Yellow light is made by combining wavelengths of red light and green light. As mentioned above, red light has a wavelength of around 700 nm, while green is around 550 nm.
When red and green light mix, it stimulates the red and green color receptors in our eyes, without stimulating the blue receptors much. This creates the perception of yellow.
So yellow light is a mix of primarily long and medium wavelengths, leaning towards the red end of the visible spectrum.
Mixing Magenta and Yellow Light
When magenta light and yellow light mix together, the result is white light! Here’s why:
Magenta light contains wavelengths of red and blue. Yellow light contains wavelengths of red and green.
When you mix them together, you end up with light containing red, green, and blue wavelengths – the three primary colors of light. This combination produces white light to our eyes.
Another way to think of it is that magenta light lacks green, while yellow light lacks blue. When you put them together, the gaps are filled in and you get a complete spectrum of visible light.
This is different from mixing magenta and yellow pigments, which produces a reddish orange color. With pigments, combining all the colors together ends up blocking and absorbing some wavelengths, resulting in a darker hue.
But when mixing light, the wavelengths simply add together to create new colors. All the wavelengths together make white light.
Light Spectrum Demonstration
To help visualize what happens when magenta and yellow light mix, imagine three spotlights shining on a wall:
– Spotlight 1 – Red light (700nm wavelength)
– Spotlight 2 – Green light (550nm wavelength)
– Spotlight 3 – Blue light (450nm wavelength)
If you turn on just Spotlights 1 and 3, so red and blue, the mix of light will appear magenta on the wall.
If you have just Spotlights 1 and 2 on, red and green, it will produce yellow light.
But if you turn on all three spotlights together – red, green and blue – the wall will be illuminated with white light.
This demonstrates that combining magenta light (red + blue) and yellow light (red + green) mixes together all three primary colors to make white.
Light and Pigments
It’s interesting to note the difference between mixing light colors and mixing artist pigments.
With pigments, magenta is a primary color and mixing it with yellow makes red. But magenta light is a secondary color, and combining it with yellow light makes white instead.
This discrepancy occurs because of the fundamentally different ways that light and pigments work. Light adds wavelengths together, while pigments absorb and subtract wavelengths to create a color.
So the same two colors can produce very different results under different contexts. It all comes down to the physics of light versus the chemistry of pigments.
Applications
Understanding that magenta light and yellow light make white light is useful for many applications:
- Display technologies like TVs, monitors, and projectors mix red, green, and blue light to produce color images. Combining magenta and yellow allows a full spectrum.
- Stage lighting systems use magenta, yellow, and cyan filters, which can mix together to make white light.
- Laser light shows can produce a wide range of colors by combining red, green, and blue lasers. This includes shining magenta and yellow lasers together to make white.
- LED lighting allows intelligent mixing of red, green, and blue LEDs to create any color. LED strips could show magenta, then yellow, then white as the sequence cycles.
- Understanding light color theory helps photographers, cinematographers, and other artists expertly capture or manipulate color in their work.
So next time you see white light being created, it may very well be coming from magenta and yellow light mixed together!
Conclusion
In summary, mixing together magenta light and yellow light produces white light. This is because:
- Magenta light contains wavelengths of red and blue.
- Yellow light contains wavelengths of red and green.
- Together, magenta and yellow contain all three primary colors of light – red, green, and blue.
- When all the wavelengths are mixed, our eyes perceive this as white light.
The mixing of light colors follows different principles compared to mixing pigments. Adding light wavelengths together produces different results than subtracting wavelengths with pigments.
So magenta and yellow light make white, while magenta and yellow pigments make a reddish orange. Understanding these interactions allows us to harness the nature of light and color for many useful applications.