Study the information and tell what you think

Discuss the questions.

Early studies of the nature of color

Read a story about early studies of the nature of colour and say who contributed to the study of colors.

In Ancient Greece, Aristotle developed the first known theory of color. He postulated that God sent down color from the heavens as celestial rays. He identified four colors corresponding to the four elements: earth, fire, wind, and water.

Leonardo da Vinci was the first to suggest an alternative hierarchy of color. In his Treatise on Painting, he said that while philosophers viewed white as the "cause, or the receiver" of colors and black as the absence of color, both were essential to the painter, with white representing light, and black, darkness. He listed his six colors in the following order: white, yellow (earth), green (water), blue (air), red (fire), and black.

The detailed understanding of the science of color began in 1666, when Isaac Newton, using two prisms, observed that white light was composed of all the colors of the rainbow, and could be identified and ordered. Newton first used the word "spectrum" for the array of colors produced by a glass prism. He recognized that the colors comprising white light are "refracted" (bent) by different amounts and he also understood that there is no "colored" light, the color being in the eye of the beholder. Instead, there is merely a range of energies - or the proportional frequencies and the inverse wavelengths. Newton assigned seven colors to the spectrum in an analogy to the musical scale.

7. Read the text for the second time and answer the following questions:

1. How many colors did Aristotle identify?

2. What elements did he correspond them to?

3. Who was the first to suggest hierarchy of colors?

4. What color did philosophers view as the absence of color according to Leonardo da Vinci?

5. When did the detailed understanding of color begin?

6. Who was the first to use the word spectrum for the array of colors produced by a glass prism?

7. How many colors did Newton assign to the spectrum?

1. What is your favorite colour?

2. What colour do you like wearing most of all? Why?

3. Do you agree that black is the queen of all colorus?

Psychologists say that our personality depends on our eye color. Look at the information psychologists say about people with different eye colors and give your opinion whether you think they are right or wrong.

Brown Eyes: Cares deeply for family, affectionate with a serious nature.

Blue Eyes: Peaceful with low physical endurance.

Hazel Eyes: Easily bored and mentally agile.

Green Eyes: Curious, intelligent, jealous.

Blue/grey Eyes: Humanitarian with an altruistic nature.

Grey Eyes: Analytical, clear thinking, philosophical.

10. There are a lot of proverbs about color/colors. Read some of them and try to explain the meaning of the one you like most of all.

1. Blind men can judge no colors. (English proverb)

2. A man will show his true colors in adversity. (African Proverb)

3. Even the colors of a chameleon are for survival not beauty. (African Proverb)

4. Milk and honey have different colors, but they share the same house peacefully.

(African Proverb)

5. Birds of a color fly to the same place. (Welsh proverb)

6. Truth has but one color, a lie has many. (Sanskrit proverb)

7. All colors will agree in the dark. (Francis Bacon)

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