Question

A blue flower appears blue in magenta light. In which other secondary light will the blue flower appear blue itself?

Answer 1

Hint: A blue color flower can appear blue only if it is able to reflect blue light. We know that magenta is a secondary color made of blue and red. So, if we shine it on a blue flower, the red component will be absorbed and blue will be reflected. Using this idea, find the other secondary color which contains blue as a component. That will be the answer.

Complete step by step solution:
A blue flower will appear blue in magenta light. In order to understand why this happens, we need to know how we see the color of an object.
We see a red apple because it absorbs all other colors and reflects only red. That is why we see it as red. If we shine a blue light on a red apple then it will appear black because blue light will be absorbed and since red is not present there is nothing to be reflected. Hence, we can see no color. So, it appears black.
Similarly, a blue flower will absorb all other colors and reflect only blue color. When we shine magenta light on it, it still appears blue because magenta is a secondary color made up of blue and red. The primary colors are red, blue and green. Secondary colors are the colors made by mixing these primary colors. Magenta is a combination of blue and red.
So, when we shine it on the blue flower it absorbs the red color and reflects the blue color so it appears blue.
In order to find other secondary lights in which the blue flower will appear blue. We need to know which other secondary color is made using blue as one of its components.
We know that the secondary color cyan is a combination of blue and green. Thus, if we shine cyan light then the green part will be absorbed and the blue color will be reflected hence the blue flower will appear to be blue itself.

So, the answer to this question is secondary light of cyan color.

Note: Remember that the primary colors are the colors that cannot be produced by mixing of any other color. That is why red, blue and green are called primary colors. Secondary colors can be made by combining any of these primary colors.