Light & Color

Season 01

Episode 16

Duration 23:05

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White light might look plain, but it is actually a hidden rainbow waiting to be set free. In this episode of Bill Nye The Science Guy, Bill explores the brilliant world of light and colour. Viewers will discover how prisms work, why apples are green, and how light waves create the vibrant world we see every day.

The Full Spectrum

Bill demonstrates how white light contains every colour of the rainbow. He shines a bright light through a water-filled prism, bending the light to reveal the full visible spectrum. He shows that pure colours like red and blue cannot be broken down any further.

Bill Nye wearing a light blue lab coat and bow tie juggling a red pepper, an orange, and a green apple at a fruit market stall to demonstrate colour reflection.

Bill Nye juggles a pepper, an apple, and an orange to explain how objects reflect specific colours of light in Season 1 Episode 16 of Bill Nye The Science Guy, remastered in 4K at seriouslyscientific.com

Reflection and Absorption

Why is a red pepper red? Bill explains that the chemicals in the skin of fruits and vegetables absorb most wavelengths of light. They only reflect specific colours back to our eyes. He juggles an apple, an orange, and a pepper to show how everyday objects get their colour.

Mixing Light and Paint

Bill highlights a crucial difference between mixing light and mixing paint. Mixing red, green, and blue light creates pure white light. However, mixing those same colours of paint creates a messy brown because paint contains pigments that absorb light instead of emitting it.

Bill Nye holding up a hand covered in colourful paint above graphic blocks spelling out the letters R O Y G B.

Bill Nye explains the colours of the visible spectrum in Season 1 Episode 16 of Bill Nye The Science Guy, remastered in 4K at seriouslyscientific.com

Pigments and the Spectrum

A visit to a crayon factory reveals how dyes and pigments are carefully mixed to create distinct colours. Bill also shares a handy trick to remember the order of the visible spectrum using the name ROY G. BIV, which stands for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Key Scientific Concepts

Concept 01
The Visible Spectrum
White light is a mixture of all the colours in the rainbow. A prism bends this light, separating it into distinct wavelengths like red, yellow, green, and blue.

Concept 02
Light Reflection
Objects appear to be a certain colour because of how they interact with light. A blue object will reflect blue light waves while absorbing all the other colours in the spectrum.

Concept 03
Light Waves
Light travels as a wave of energy. Different colours have different wavelengths, with red light having long slow waves and blue light having short fast waves.

Quick Science Facts

⚡ Quick Science Facts from This Episode

White light is a mixture of all the distinct colours of the rainbow.
Mixing red and blue food colouring in water will create purple.
Combining all the primary colours of light together produces pure white light.
Black clothes absorb almost all colours of light and convert them into heat.
White clothes reflect all colours of light and absorb very little heat.
Smoke is used at dance parties so that laser beams have particles to bounce off and become visible.

Science Updates Since This Episode First Aired

🔬 What Science Knows Now

LED technology has completely transformed global lighting since 1993, using semiconductors rather than heated filaments or excited neon gas to create specific colours of light efficiently.
Scientists have engineered ultra-black materials using carbon nanotubes that absorb over 99.99 percent of visible light, taking the concept Bill discusses about black clothing to the extreme.
Researchers now use the principles of light scattering, similar to what makes the sky blue, to develop advanced medical imaging techniques that detect diseases without X-rays.
While Bill focuses on the visible spectrum, telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope now capture invisible infrared light to reveal the vibrant colours of newly forming stars billions of light-years away.

📋

NGSS Alignment

This episode covers Next Generation Science Standards for middle school physical science relating to light waves and electromagnetic radiation.

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MS-PS4-2

This episode info was written and fact-checked by Seriously Scientific. Science updates reflect current understanding as of 2026.

Interactive Science Lesson

Light & Colour

Based on Bill Nye the Science Guy · Season 1, Episode 16 · 23 min

Did you know that white light is a mixture of all the colours of the rainbow? In this lesson, you will discover how prisms split light, why objects have colour, and what happens when light gets absorbed.

Step 1 of 6 · Engage

Engage

What Colour Is White Light?

Here is a question that stumped scientists for centuries: is white light one colour, or is it something else entirely?

Explore

Put Your Instincts to the Test

Think about what you already know about light and colour. Pick an answer for each question, then see if your instincts were right.

A red apple sits on a table under white light. Why does it look red?

If you mix red, yellow, and blue paint together, you get brown. What do you think happens if you mix red, green, and blue light together?

On a hot sunny day, would you feel cooler wearing a black T-shirt or a white T-shirt? Why?

Explain

Understanding Light and Colour

Tap each card to reveal the explanation.

Key Concepts

Try It: What Colour Does It Look?

Every object reflects some wavelengths of light and absorbs the rest. Pick an object, pick a light source, and watch what bounces back to your eye.

Object

Light

Try the yellow banana under blue light, or coal under any light. Watch what changes.

Elaborate

Apply Your Knowledge

Now let us see if you can connect what you have learned to the real world.

Match the Object to Its Light Behaviour

Click an object to select it, then click the matching description to place it.

Objects

Fresh snow

Lump of coal

Green leaf

Sunset sky

Reflects almost all colours

Absorbs almost all colours

Reflects green, absorbs the rest

Blue scattered away, reds remain

Real-World Challenge

Imagine you are designing the roof of a building in a hot desert climate. Based on what you have learned about light absorption and reflection, what colour would you paint the roof and why? Now imagine you are designing a solar-powered water heater. Would your answer change?

Science Update

What Has Changed Since This Episode Aired

This episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy first aired in 1993. While the core science of light and colour remains accurate, here are a few things that have been refined or expanded since then.

Evaluate

Test Your Understanding

Answer these questions and get instant feedback. How many can you get right?

Reflection

What surprised you most about how light and colour work? Can you think of an example from your everyday life where understanding absorption and reflection would be useful?

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Light & Color

The Full Spectrum

Reflection and Absorption

Mixing Light and Paint

Pigments and the Spectrum

Key Scientific Concepts

Quick Science Facts

Science Updates Since This Episode First Aired

Bill Nye The Science Guy

Season 1 (20 episodes)

Season 2 (20 episodes)

Season 3 (21 episodes)

Season 4 (19 episodes)

Season 5 (20 episodes)

Episode Discussion

Join the Discussion Cancel Reply

Light & Colour

What Colour Is White Light?

Put Your Instincts to the Test

Understanding Light and Colour

Key Concepts

The Visible Spectrum

Absorption and Reflection

Light Becomes Heat

Additive vs Subtractive

Light as Waves

Why Is the Sky Blue?

Why You See Colour at All

Colour Blindness