InkJets...

This past weekend was superb! We won the DII HHSAA State Football Championship!!! Maybe it wasn't the longest that I would have liked but on Friday night, all the confetti fell from the skies!!! So anyways, this was a fun, physics filled weekend of color. I noticed things in color realizing that it all pertains to visible light and how it works. It pertains to how colors are made, either addition or subtraction. In this episode of physics nine journal, I shall introduce to you the magic of color of ink jet printers. Did you know that ink jet printers can create thousands and thousands of colors with only three colors, magenta, cyan, and yellow and then of course black which is the absence of color? Its true! And i really didn't realize this even though i always have to change the ink cartridges. The three colors are the 3 primary colors of pigment which in actuality would be produced when the 3 primary colors of light mix with each other. However the lights are different from paints and dyes and what not. Just for example, green and blue light will create cyan light. But cyan and magenta paint will create a blue color. So in an ink jet, colors are made by color by subtraction where 3 pigment colors are mixed and the size of the dot on the paper is manipulated. Inkjet printers deposit various combinations of magenta, cyan, and yellow, and black inks which can create amazing pictures. If you were to examine a picture in a book with a magnifying glass, you can see how the overlapping dots of these colors give the appearance of many colors.