Skip to Content

What is light green and red mixed together?

What is light green and red mixed together?

Mixing light green and red light together produces a resulting color that is dependent on the exact shades of green and red used. In general, mixing light colors is different than mixing pigment colors, as adding light together produces a brighter result, while mixing pigments results in a darker muddy color. When it comes to green and red light, the specific wavelengths and intensities determine the final color our eyes perceive.

How Light and Color Work

Visible light consists of electromagnetic wavelengths that our eyes can detect. The visible spectrum ranges from about 400 to 700 nanometers. Red light has longer wavelengths on the end of the spectrum from around 620-700 nm. Green light has medium wavelengths from around 500-565 nm. Our eyes contain special receptor cells called cones that can detect these different wavelengths and send signals to our brain.

There are three types of cones:

– Red cones that are most sensitive to long wavelengths like red
– Green cones most sensitive to medium wavelengths like green
– Blue cones most sensitive to short violet-blue wavelengths

By combining the signals from all three types of cones, our brain can perceive all the colors of the rainbow. Mixing different wavelengths of light activates the three cone types to different degrees, creating all the hues we see.

Additive vs. Subtractive Color Mixing

When talking about mixing colors of light, it is important to understand the difference between additive and subtractive mixing.

Additive color mixing refers to combining colors of light. With light, the mixing is additive because combining wavelengths adds more total light energy. When you mix red and green light, the eye receives both red and green wavelengths simultaneously, stimulating both red and green cones. The brain interprets this combination as a bright yellow color.

Subtractive color mixing involves pigments and dyes that absorb certain wavelengths and reflect others. Combining pigments results in a subtractive mixing, because each pigment absorbs some wavelengths and reflects less total light to the eye. Mixing green and red paint produces a dark muddy brown by subtracting out wavelengths.

Since mixing lights is additive, the results are brighter and differ from mixing pigments. Understanding this distinction is key for predicting the outcome of mixing any colors of light.

Mixing Red and Green Light

When beams of pure red (around 700 nm) and green (around 530 nm) light mix, the result is a bright yellow color. This is because both the red and green cones in the eye are strongly stimulated. The brain interprets this combination of strong red and green signals as yellow.

The exact shade of yellow will depend on the relative intensities of the red and green light. If the red light dominates, the yellow will appear more orange. With more intense green, the yellow will look bright lime green. Equal intensities will produce a pure yellow halfway between red and green.

Varying the proportions shifts the balance point, allowing many yellowish colors in between red and green. Mixing light is very flexible since the intensities can be precisely adjusted. Compare this to mixing red and green paints, which always produces a dark brown with little control.

Other Color Combinations

Mixing pure red and green light produces yellow, but changing the wavelengths can yield different results:

– Red-orange + Green: Yellowish chartreuse
– Red + Blue-green: White
– Deep red + Bright green: Amber

The vivid gemstone color amber results from pairing a deep red wavelength around 640 nm with a yellowish green around 560 nm.

More examples:

– Red + Cyan (blue-green): Pink
– Magenta (purplish red) + Green: Bright white

As a rule, combining opposite colors on the color wheel (red & green, blue & orange, purple & yellow) makes white light. The complementary colors balance to stimulate all three cone types maximally.

Light Mixing in Technology

Understanding additive light mixing is key for many color technologies:

Color monitors

Computer/TV screens use tiny pixels made up of red, green, and blue LEDs (light emitting diodes). Varying the intensity of the RGB LEDs allows producing all colors by additively mixing the primary hues.

Stage lighting

Theaters use red, green, blue gels to tint stage lights. Mixing the colored spotlights allows lighting designers to create dramatic color effects by blending.

Technology Color Mixing Method
Computer/TV screens RGB pixels with red, green, blue LEDs
Theater lighting Overlapping projected lights with RGB gels

Pigment vs. Light Color Mixing

It’s useful to compare mixing light colors, like on a computer screen, to mixing artist paint pigments:

Light Color Mixing Pigment Color Mixing
Method Additive – combining wavelengths adds light Subtractive – pigments absorb/reflect selectively
Red + Green Bright yellow Dark brown
Red + Blue Magenta Purple

Since mixing light is additive, combining colors results in brighter and lighter shades than mixing equivalent pigments. This difference has important implications for color theory across different mediums.

Light Interference and Thin Films

While mixing beams of light additively produces a range of colors, interference between light waves can also generate colorful results. Thin transparent films can create interference colors based on the thickness of the film.

As light reflects off the top and bottom surfaces of a thin film, the waves can constructively and destructively interfere. Depending on the thickness relative to the wavelengths, certain colors are enhanced while other wavelengths are cancelled out through interference.

For example, a film of oil floating on water often shows vibrant rainbow colors due to interference. Each color corresponds to a different thickness of the oil film. Interference from thin films demonstrates that color depends on both the wavelength and physics of light.

Soap bubbles create similar rainbow interference colors based on how thin the soap film is across the bubble. Mixing different thicknesses results in complex swirling color patterns.

Conclusion

Mixing light green and red produces shades of yellow, ranging from greenish-yellow to orange depending on the relative amounts. This additive mixing of light differs from subtractive pigment mixing. Understanding the physics of how our eyes perceive different wavelengths of light explains why combining green and red light appears bright yellow. Mixing light underlies the technology of color TVs, computer monitors, and stage lighting. While additive mixing creates new hues, interference colors can also arise from thickness effects with thin films. Color proves far more complex than our simple human vision can perceive.