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6F10.25 - Spinning Color Wheel

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​6F10.25 - Spinning Color Wheel

Preview
SelectSelected
Title6F10.25 - Spinning Color Wheel
Objective

To demonstrate that if you have a disk with colored sectors, when rotated fast enough the output appears white.

StatusAvailable
Assembly Instructions

​A slide projector with the second largest circular aperature is used as the white light source.  The projector must be elevated with wooden blocks until the output beam lines up with one of the filter openings in the color wheel.  The color wheel is attached to the large blue 150VAC, 10A power supply.

Setup Time10
Operation Time5
Preview Time5
Operation Instructions

Turn on the projector and make sure the output light beam lines up with the openings in the color wheel.  Turn on the power supply for the color wheel and begin by slowly rotating the wheel to show that the white light passes through a color filters (red, green, blue) only.​  Then speed up the rotation rate until you exceed the refresh rate of your eye (~1/24th of a second) causing the output color to appear white.

ExportableNo
Demo on DimeNo
PIRA 200No
Export Instructions (if different)
HazardsNone
Analysis/Information

​In order to observe this effect, you must use light filters and not a printed color wheel.  This is due to the fact that light and pigment combinations yield different results.  Also, the color wheel must spin faster than the refresh rate of the human eye, which is on average rotating every 1/24th of a second = 1440rpm.  When you exceed this refresh rate, the rods and cones in your eye cannot resolve the different filtered colors and they become saturated, resulting in the appearance of white light.

Category6 Optics
Subcategory6F - Color
Keywordscolor, refresh rate, eye, rotation, addition of color, pigment vs. light
Construction Information
 
Equipment TitleUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
  
QuantityUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
  
projector
1
projector slit - large circular
1
power supply - 0-150VAC, 0-150VDC, blue box
1
wooden block
1
red-green-blue filters on rotating disk mounted to motor
1
banana cable
2
flat mirror on black rotating base - to shine output on wall
1