Collins Big Cat - Our Colourful World : Band 12/Copper

Copper Band 12

OUR COLOURFUL WORLD

Our Colourful World

Our Colourful World

Colour is everywhere! This book explores the exciting world of colour, from nature and food to clothing and artwork, with old and new stories from around the world.

An information book collins.co.uk/collinsbigcat

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Our Colourful World Contents 1 Colour is all around

2

2 Rainbows of colour

4

3 What is colour?

6

4 Colour wheel

8

5 Warm colours

10

6 Cool colours

18

7 Colourful you

26

Glossary

28

Index

29

A world of colour

30

Written by Teresa Flavin

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1 Colour is all around The world is alive with a rainbow of colours – red strawberries, orange tiger fur, yellow sunflowers, green forests, blue oceans, indigo birds, violet stones and much more.

Throughout history, people learnt how to turn nature’s colours into dyes and pigments. This book explores the amazing ways that people coloured their artwork, clothing and even their food.

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3

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2 Rainbows of colour Some of nature’s most colourful features are rainbows.

They appear in the sky when sunlight shines through raindrops. The light bends and reflects colours that make a rainbow.

light bending 4

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Today the rainbow is a symbol of hope and unity for many people.

Before people learnt how rainbows are formed, they told stories to explain where they came from. For example, some people believed rainbows were bridges to the sky.

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3 What is colour?

Around 1665, the scientist Isaac Newton noticed how light splits into rainbow colours when it shines through a prism. He showed that colour comes from wavelengths of light. Each colour has its own wavelength.

Isaac Newton’s prism experiment

6

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Light wavelengths surround everything on Earth.

When light touches a flower, some light is absorbed and some is reflected. The reflected light enters our eyes, which tell our brain what colour the flower is. In daytime, our eyes detect many colours reflected by light.

In the dark, we can see objects but we can’t recognise their colours without reflected light.

Sun

reflected light eye

flower

Did you know?

When something absorbs all light wavelengths, it looks black.

When something reflects all light wavelengths, it looks white.

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4 Colour wheel Colour wheels help artists to understand how colour works.

Red, yellow and blue are called primary colours.

Orange, green and violet are called secondary colours.

Mixing two primary colours together makes a secondary colour.

primary colour wheel

secondary colour wheel

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Colours opposite each other on the wheel are called complementary colours. They look brighter next to each other.

Did you know?

Look at the red apple for a few minutes, then look at the white space next to it. You may see a green apple, which is red’s complementary colour.

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Copper Band 12

OUR COLOURFUL WORLD

Our Colourful World

Our Colourful World

Colour is everywhere! This book explores the exciting world of colour, from nature and food to clothing and artwork, with old and new stories from around the world.

An information book collins.co.uk/collinsbigcat

79039_Cover.indd 1

Teresa Flavin 09/05/2022 14:48