Dictionary of light, colour & vision

Absorption of light occurs when the frequency of the wave matches the frequency of electrons orbiting atomic nuclei in a material. When light is absorbed by an object or medium, ...

Accommodation refers to the way the lenses inside our eyes accommodate for the fact that objects of interest may be close to or at a distance. Sharp images on the ...

Achromatic means without colour so refers to surfaces or objects that appear white, grey or black. Achromatic colours lack hue or saturation but can be described in terms of their ...

An additive colour model explains how different coloured lights (such as LEDs or beams of light) are mixed to produce other colours. Additive colour refers to the methods used and ...

The general purpose of a colour space is to determine the range of colours available within a specific workflow and may be determined by a user or programmatically. The Adobe ...

Airglow is a faint, continual emission of light originating from the Earth's upper atmosphere, typically between 80 and 400 kilometres in altitude. While often mistaken for distant starlight, it forms ...

Alexander's band, also known as Alexander's dark band, is an optical phenomenon observed in rainbows. It refers to the region between the primary and secondary bows, which often appears noticeably ...

Amacrine cells are interneurons in the human retina within the eyeball that interact with retinal ganglion cells and/or bipolar cells. Amacrine cells are an example of neurons which are the ...

The amplitude of an electromagnetic wave is directly connected with the amount of energy it carries. In a wave diagram, the amplitude is represented as the distance from the centre ...

Analogous colours are colours that are very similar to one another and appear next to each other on a colour wheel. Analogous colours are colours with similar hues. An example ...