A Hands-on to Teach Colour Perception: The Colour Vision Tube

Abstract

One basic concept for understanding colour phenomena is the concept of vision. Although vision seems to be quite a natural and simple thing, students are often not familiar with the mechanism behind perceiving objects or even “the colour of objects”. This contribution introduces a simple hands-on experiment, the Colour Vision Tube. The Colour Vision Tube facilitates the experience of seeing “coloured” objects illuminated with other than white light sources. These experiences support students in understanding the relevance of the illuminating light and the conception of selective reï¬ection for colour vision.