Help with my Science homework, please!!

[mackeysmom]

Hi Guys -

Only three courses left before I get my degree (in Hotel Management) in December. I've been putting off the required Science class until the end, and decided to take it in the form of summer school - five weeks, four days a week, four hours a day.

I'm finishing up a lab report and having trouble with just one of the questions. I was hoping somebody out there could help.

The lab was one where we extracted the chlorophyll from seaweed and studied it (brown and green seaweed) under different wavelengths of light. The question is:

Compare the spectrum of light passing through a chlorophyll solution to the spectrum of unaltered light. What sections of the light spectrum are being completely absorbed by the chlorophyll solution?

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Laura

 

[LuvBaloo]

I belive the answer is blue and red are absorbed by chlorophyll.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophyll

 

[redlight]

The part of the spectrum that you see is the part that's reflected. The part you don't see is absorbed.

 

[mackeysmom]

The part of the spectrum that you see is the part that's reflected. The part you don't see is absorbed.

So for example, when I see something green - only green is being reflected and the other colors (ROY_BIV) are being absorbed? And so on and so forth?

 

[redlight]

So for example, when I see something green - only green is being reflected and the other colors (ROY_BIV) are being absorbed? And so on and so forth?

Yes. There may be some of the other spectra being reflected, but green is the dominant one.

 

[FireDancer]

Yes. There may be some of the other spectra being reflected, but green is the dominant one.

Yep. The shade of green is adjusted by the percentage of different wavelengths being reflected. As an over simplification look at the RGB data of any color in a program like Photoshop and you will see the ratio of any colors Red - Green - Blue reflection.

Now, for a science lab you may need to add some additional data. Our eyes are not perfect perceivers of color. For example, a perfectly clear sky actually reflects a majority violet wavelength but our eyes perceive that wavelength as blue. I don't know what level of lab it is but a simple, it is absorbing everything other than green may not be specific enough.