Light
A source of light can have many colors mixed and in different amounts (intensities). A rainbow, or prism, sends the different frequencies in different directions, making them individually visible at different angles. A graph of the intensity plotted against the frequency (showing the amount of each color) is the frequency spectrum of the light. When all the visible frequencies are present in equal amounts, the perceived color of the light is white, and the spectrum is a flat line. Therefore, flat-line spectrums in general are often referred to as white, whether they represent light or something else
Read more about this topic: Frequency Spectrum
Famous quotes containing the word light:
“Few colors last; with their eternal thirst, time and light suck on them, and they bleach the black doctor’s hat until it’s grey like a dunce’s cap.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“But seldom the laurel wreath is seen
Unmixed with pensive pansies dark;
There’s a light and a shadow on every man
Who at last attains his lifted mark—
Nursing through night the ethereal spark.
Elate he never can be;
He feels that spirits which glad had hailed his worth,
Sleep in oblivion.—The shark
Glides white through the phosphorus sea.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“One stick of kindling alone will not light a fire.”
—Chinese proverb.