The Tech
Museum
Colors in the Mind
What is it?
An activity for visitors age 5 and up to design a color spinner that explores how
our brains see color. Because our eyes are not the most efficient in the animal
kingdom, we experience a phenomenon called “persistence of vision.”
Materials
Old CDs
Marbles
Bottle caps
Pre-drawn circles (see attached)
Scissors
Colored pencils, crayons or markers
Glue (hot glue or Elmer’s)
Note: Hot glue requires glue guns and sticks, and a cup or bowl of water
Set-Up
Have a CD, marble, bottle cap and pre-drawn circle for each student. It is not
reccomended to have the students work in teams, but that is an option. Have
coloring materials available for each student. You may choose to cut out the circle
before the lesson, but it is not necessary. It is recommended that for younger
students, the hot glue should be handled by the instructor only.
How it Works
• Cut out the pre-drawn circles provided. See last page.
• Choose colors you’d like to mix in your color spinner or follow the pattern. Color
blocks or wedges of the circle.
• Glue the colored paper to the top of the CD.
• Glue the marble to the inner hole of the CD. The marble should be placed on
the bottom, uncolored side.
• Glue or tape the bottle cap to the inner hole of the CD. The cap should be
placed on the top, colored side.
• Once everything is dry, spin the CD like a top to see what colors your spinner
makes!
Deeper Content
When the disk spins fast enough your eye can no longer see each individual
color. Instead, it combines them into one image, allowing you to see the colors
mixed. This is called “persistence of vision.” You’ll find that persistence of vision
is utilized in many different products. The one you’re probably most familiar with
is the television. If you’re eyes didn’t naturally blend fast moving images
The Tech
Museum
together, you wouldn’t be able to watch a television show.
White light is composed of light energy from the entire visible spectrum. The
visible spectrum includes the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and
violet.
The color of a substance results from the reflection of light from that substance.
A red shirt appears red when exposed to “white” light because the red-colored
light waves are reflected from the surface of the shirt and the other wavelengths
are absorbed. However, most materials do not reflect a pure single-frequency
color and absorb all the other frequencies.
A disc containing alternating blue and green colored sections will appear to be a
single different color if the disc is rotated fast enough because the human eye
cannot distinguish between the colors. Human eyes will perceive this as a cyancolored disc as if they were being excited by simultaneous beams of blue and
green light. Likewise, a spinning red and blue disc will appear magenta, and a
spinning red and green disc will appear yellow.
An object can only reflect the light frequencies that are present in the light that
illuminates it. Since most objects do not completely absorb all the light frequencies, the color of the object will depend on the light source.
Resources
• Davidson, Michael W. "Investigating Special Properties of Light." Molecular
Expressions: Science, Optics, and You - Activities in Optics. Center for Integrating
Research in Learning and Florida State University, 03 Aug 2003. Web. 2007.
<http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/activities/teachers/properties.html>.
• Unknown. "The Magic School Bus Makes a Rainbow." Scholastic. Scholastic,
2010. Web. 2007. <http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=1633>.
• Unknown. "Newton's Color Wheels: Additive Color Mixing." Physical Science
Fax!. Flinn Scientific, Inc., 2006. Web. 2007.
<http://www.flinnsci.com/Documents/demoPDFs/PhysicalSci/PS10473.pdf>.
• Unknown. "Tops." Thinking Fountain. Science Museum of Minnesota, 1996.
Web. 2007. <http://www.thinkingfountain.org/t/tops/tops.html>.
California Science Standards
• Investigation and Experimentation (Grades K-8)
• Physical Sciences (Grades 1.e, 3.2)
This pattern is good for demon
strative use. Students are also
welcome to ignore the recom
mended colors and substitute
their own.
This pattern is for the more
creatively experimental lesson.
Students are encourage to use
their imagination to color in the
pattern.
An Example of Combining the Primary Colors
Red
Orange
Purple
Green
Yellow
Blue