Measurements of Light, Dispersion, Colours

Abstract

Light and sound are the two most important wave phenomena people experience in daily life. We start this chapter by defining various concepts and units used for characterizing light and light sources, both in a purely physical setting and as judged by human vision. We then give important characteristics of the wavelength ranges of the various receptors in the human eye and how our colour vision makes the foundation of additive colour mixing in modern colour picture technology. We also point out how dispersion leads to colour spectra and boundary colours for specific boundary conditions. A few curious phenomena found in human colour vision are also mentioned.