- Are you feeling curious?

- Yeah.

- Today on "Curious Crew".

Let's go ahead and wind these up.

We take a spin.

I feel like I'm being hypnotized and explore the spectrum of light.

- I see orange.

- This is one colorful episode.

Now this is where it gets really cool.

- Support for "Curious Crew" is provided by MSU Federal Credit Union offering a variety of accounts for children and teens of all ages while teaching lifelong saving habits.

More information is available@msufcu.org.

Also by the Consumer's Energy Foundation dedicated to ensuring Michigan residents have access to world-class educational resources.

More information is available at ConsumersEnergy.com/foundation.

Consumer's Energy Foundation supporting education and building sustainable communities in Michigan's hometowns.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Rob Stevenson.

And this is?

- "Curious Crew".

- That's right.

Welcome to the show, everybody.

We always like to start every show with a couple of discrepant events because discrepant events stimulate?

- Curiosity.

- That's exactly right.

And I've got some fun ones for you today.

First of all, I want to show you this little wheel that I've made.

I took a piece of foam board, just cut it into a circle and then I used a compass and I made several concentric rings.

The cool thing about this is you'll notice that I use permanent marker to color one side of this ring, blue, the other side red.

And as I go inside, I kept using opposite colors.

So a red against a yellow, a yellow against a blue and I've wound some strings through here and this is actually a pretty cool toy that I can use.

Adia, have you ever seen a toy like this before?

- Yes.

- How does it work?

What do you do with it?

- You have to pull the strings and it makes it go fast.

- All right.

So let's try that.

I'm gonna pull the strings like she's suggesting and we get it starting to spin.

And what's really interesting is you'll see it starting to spin the other way so I gotta pull it again, and again.

And I can keep doing this and doing this and doing this.

And first of all, Gibson, what are you noticing about this as it's spinning?

- Each time it spins, it looks like the colors are changing.

- Okay.

So we get some color change going on.

Okay.

That's kind of fun.

We're gonna think about that.

There's another thing that I'd like to show you real quick and it involves these scribble pictures that I have over here.

And I'm gonna take this green filter and lay it over the top.

Just use a little static electricity so it can cling to it.

And my guess is you can probably still see those clouds of scribbles going right to that green filter, right?

Now here's where it gets interesting.

I also have a red filter and I'm going to substitute the red filter instead of the green and see if you notice anything new.

Isn't that cool?

It says, "Can you see me?

Stay curious."

So you might be wondering, "Okay, how does that work?"

Clearly, with the green filter, we've got nothing that we can see.

That's interesting.

Okay.

So to figure these things out I'm gonna invite three of you to do a little scientific modeling using some evidence through the show to revise your thinking to see if you can explain how these discrepant events work.

Who would like to do a little scientific modeling moments today?

Who'd like to try it?

Okay.

Genesis, Finney, Rishabh, you guys are gonna work on that.

Does anybody have a guess what we're gonna be talking about in this episode?

What are we gonna explore?

Somebody give a guest.

Okay.

Julia, what do you think?

- I think we're going to be talking about colors.

- That is an excellent guess.

That's exactly what we're gonna be talking about.

Color science.

It's sure to be a colorful episode.

Stick around, it's gonna be fun.

(upbeat music) - Okay.

Let's see if we can figure out these discrepant events.

- I definitely could see different colors in the rings when the spinner was moving quickly.

It kind of reminded me of different optical illusions I've seen.

- I know, but the colors that were appearing in the rings were secondary colors, like seeing orange in the ring that had red and yellow.

- Yeah, I was also wondering about the decoder filters.

Why would shifting from the green to the red filter make it possible to see the written message?

(upbeat music) (funky music) - As we look around, we can't help but notice and appreciate all the colors that surround us.

But to make sense of color requires us to think about light.

Light from the sun is actually energy waves grouped into an entire spectrum.

Our eyes detect different waves in the spectrum that our brains understand as color.

But the part of the spectrum we can see is quite small.

On one end of the visible spectrum there are short blue wavelengths and long red wavelengths on the other.

White light is made of a combination of waves we see as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, ROYGBIV.

(happy music) So, weren't those discrepant events interesting you guys?

- [Both] Yeah.

- Pretty cool.

So to really understand color science, we're gonna dig into a little bit of the subtractive color system.

And to do this, I have made some special ice cubes.

You might've noticed, I took some food coloring and water and I froze some.

I've got some blue, I've got some yellow and I've got some red.

Now, the really interesting thing about this is once you pull them out of the ice tray you can just let them melt and the colors will do their thing.

If you look underneath each one of my cups you'll see what happens to them when they melt.

So I've got blue, which is gonna go right into blue but this blue and yellow, notice what it did.

It sort of went into a green.

And then we've got yellow and yellow stayed yellow, of course.

And then we had red and yellow which sort of has a little bit of an orange tint to it.

Then we have red and red, red and blue which sorta made a lavender or a purple color.

And notice what happened when I put all three in there together, we get that color black which is kinda cool.

We can even illustrate this another way.

Guys, I don't know if you've ever seen this.

I've got these cool little tablets on my table here.

There's gonna be a red one, a blue one, and a yellow one.

And I'm gonna put these fizzing tablets in different combinations in these little cups.

So this one's gonna be blue and red.

And then I've got a red one going in there and I've got a red and yellow coming together.

And then this one by itself and then all three together.

Now, when you start noticing going from these primary colors of yellow, red and blue we can actually make secondary colors too.

You guys ready to make some secondary colors?

- [Both] Yeah.

- Okay.

So I've given you each something pretty interesting.

You hold yours up while I get mine ready.

I've got these little plastic bags and I've got a syringe that has different colored gel.

So I'm gonna put some blue in this and I'm gonna put some red in this and then I'm gonna put some yellow in here and I'm going to attempt to squeeze the air out before we start combining it.

Is the air out of yours, you guys?

- [Both] Yeah.

- Okay.

Hold it up.

And I want you to start squeezing it together and see if we can make some secondary colors.

(upbeat music) I'm even gonna pull that down right there.

(upbeat music) Now this gel, as you notice, it's just starting out in the primaries but we can get it to go into that secondary color which is beautiful.

Oh, those are looking great, you guys.

Color science is amazing.

So we can take subtractive primary colors and make subtractive secondary colors.

Now that's cool.

When we see an object like a red apple our eyes are seeing a reflection of light off that apple but it is the waves we see as red that are reflecting.

That means all the other waves are absorbed into the apple.

They are subtracted out so we can't see them.

Imagine if you mix red, blue and green food coloring together you can black.

Each color that gets added absorbs more light with less getting reflected for us to see.

Eventually, those combined pigments absorb so much light, we see it as black.

(happy music) So we've got some really interesting investigations to look out for just a minute.

We know we've been exploring the subtractive color system.

We looked at some ice, we looked at some really interesting colors that came out of that.

But what I want to think about now, you guys is how do we work backwards?

In other words, if I take all the different colors in the subtractive color system, I put them together, I end up with black, right?

That would be true for paint, for ink, for dyes.

And I started thinking about jelly beans 'cause you guys know are like jelly beans.

And we've done a little investigation.

And what we did is we got some black jelly beans and we got them wet.

And then we placed them on this filter paper.

And you guys, show me what yours look like.

Hold those up.

Let me see them.

Rishabh, what colors are you seeing in that filter paper?

- I'm seeing purple and green colors.

- Purple and green.

- Adia, how about you?

- Pink and green.

- Pink and green.

So I've got some of those same colors on mine.

When I pull this out, I'm seeing some greens, I'm seeing some reds, kind of a pink, some brown.

All of those colors are actually mixed in to that black dye in the jelly bean, which is really funny.

And of course, when we get it wet, we can get those dyes to start separating from each other and then we can capture them in the filter.

Now I know you guys have a lot more jelly beans and I think we're gonna be testing some more just for fun later, or maybe we're just gonna eat them.

I don't know.

So there's something else I want to think about.

And that is light.

Now, light is part of the additive color system.

So let's think about this.

If we've got dyes and we put all the colors together we get black.

But with light, if you have all the colors together, you get white.

And that's kind of unusual.

I think both of you have a prism, don't you?

Get out your prism.

Prisms are really interesting because when white light passes through a prism and we look through it we might be surprised at what we see.

Adia, what do you see when you look through yours?

- A rainbow.

- You see a rainbow?

I do too which is kind of unusual, but that white light is going through the prism.

And amazingly, those different wavelengths of the light travel at different speeds once it hits the prism and we end up having some colors bending more than the others and so it separates those colors.

And there's lots of different kinds of prisms and crystals.

And you might've even had a crystal hanging in a window or something and all of a sudden the sun is coming through and all of a sudden you have all these sparkles around your room with all these wonderful rainbows.

But there's one more thing.

I want to show you how we can separate light into the different colors.

And that's using something like this.

This is really interesting.

It's a diffusion grate.

I'm just gonna spin it 'cause I think it looks really neat.

I'm gonna put some light on this and you'll start seeing this rainbow of colors sort of dancing around on the surface of this.

I can take good advantage of the studio lights and show it to you that way as well.

As the light comes through, it actually goes through this teeny tiny little grate and separates all of those colors.

Isn't that amazing, you guys?

- [Both] Yeah.

- So in one case, we've got the subtractive color system and the other case, the additive color system.

In one case, all the colors combine to make black and in the other, all the colors combined to make white.

It's amazing.

There are two kinds of color systems, additive and subtractive.

We know that light is made up of a rainbow of colors that are added together.

Televisions and computers also create additive colors by exciting small phosphor dots that turn different intensities of red, green, or blue.

The dots are so small our brains merge the colors together and we see different shades.

In the subtractive color system we see colors that get reflected off objects like the red apple.

So in this subtractive system we need a light source to see those colors.

Ooh, that's pretty.

(upbeat music) - STEM challenge.

- So, have you guys been having fun learning about color science today?

- [All] Yeah.

- Awesome.

Well, as I was thinking about the discrepant event at the beginning of the show, I thought, "Wouldn't it be fun to design your own colored spinner?"

So I've got a lot of different ideas for you but I'm sure you have plenty of ideas yourselves.

I believe you got your materials ready?

All right.

So I think you can probably go ahead and get started my friends.

(upbeat music) - We're making color spinners and when you spin it and then pull the strings, the colors will change.

- I'm still coloring.

- We're using a circle of cardboard, markers and printed patterns to make our colored spinners look cooler as we spin them.

Yeah, I did this on the front.

(upbeat music) - Like this and then like this.

I had trouble putting the string through the holes.

The string was separating at the end and then different pieces of the string were going through the holes and the whole thing wasn't going through at once.

- Well, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Putting the string through the hole is easy.

It's just figuring out which way to pull the string in.

I thought it would just lose momentum after a while.

I think it worked.

But after a couple of tries, I got up to go and it looks really cool and it's really fun to play with.

- It's a little bit purple.

What I like about this experiment is when the colors spin and mix together they make pretty new colors.

- So are you guys ready to show me your colored spinners that you've made?

- [All] Yeah.

- All right.

Let's take a look at those.

Hold those up.

I want to see what your patterns look like.

Oh, those are fun.

Okay.

And show me the other side.

Show me the other side.

Okay.

A couple of those are gonna make me dizzy.

I can tell already.

All right, let's go ahead and wind these up.

I'll do this one.

I've got several heres as well.

Now the trick with this as you guys know is we're going to swing it around kind of like you're swinging a jump rope and once you get it nice and twisted, we're gonna pull it apart.

And the amazing thing is, as it unwinds and slows down it'll start to twist the other direction so we can continue to pull it out and out again and it'll rotate and then wind up and twist the other direction.

And check out those colors.

Okay.

Julia, yours, I feel like I'm being hypnotized.

(Dr.

Rob laughing) Nice job.

That's awesome.

You guys have fun with this?

- [All Yeah.

- Try making your own colored spinner and you can get pretty creative, that's for sure.

Discovering the difference between additive and subtractive color systems is tricky but here are some differences.

When you think of additive colors, they must come from a light source like the sun, TV or computer and the primary colors are red, green and blue.

If you combine them, they turn white.

And if there is no light, it is black.

Subtractive colors, like ink, dye or paint need light to reflect colors.

Those primary colors are magenta, yellow and cyan and when combined turn black while the absence of color is white.

Color science is cool.

(upbeat music) (funky music) So I want to talk to you guys about color filtering which is really kind of neat.

In fact, I've sent some paddles to you guys that are all different colors, right?

Hold up a color, look through it and Finney, tell me what color do you see when you look through that?

- I see red through this filter.

- Okay, great.

- And Genesis, what color are you seeing when you look through?

- I see orange.

- Which makes sense because what's happening is this is actually filtering out the other colors.

Those other colors are actually absorbing into the paddles but it's transmitting the color that we see.

So as a result of that, if I look through a yellow paddle everything looks yellow, which is really interesting.

Now what I want you guys to do is take two colors and overlap them, look at a light source and tell me what you see.

What do you see, Genesis?

- So I overlapped purple and orange and I see like a magenta color.

- Oh, interesting.

Okay.

Finney, how about you?

- So I overlapped red and green and there's kind of a nice brownish.

- I've overlapped a yellow and blue and I get green which actually kind of makes sense if you think about it.

So I'm bringing out one of those secondary colors.

And in fact, we see this with filters that we use here in the studio too where we can get different colors if we want things to cast yellow or red or even a combination when we overlap them together which is really kind of neat.

So I want to show you one other thing too which I find fascinating.

So, we've talked a lot about the color systems the additive and subtractive and I want to focus on the additive color system for just a second.

So I'm gonna put a green light on this board and I'm gonna put a blue light on this board.

And you'll notice when I overlap it we end up with, yet again, another color.

That other color is actually called cyan.

And if I put in a red, now, this is where it gets really cool because what I'm actually looking at is the outer colors the green, the red, the blue, these are the primary colors in the additive color system, in other words, light.

But when they overlap, we actually get the primary colors in the subtractive color system with yellow, blue and magenta.

And if I bring them closer still look in the very center where all of them overlap and we get white light, which is absolutely amazing.

I can pull this one out, pull this one out but if we bring them all together we will get white light on the overlap.

Isn't that amazing?

- Whoa.

- Yeah.

- And in fact, when we think about that additive color system it's got to come from a light source whether it's going to be from the sun from a white light bulb, from your television or even your computer with those little dots making red, green, and blue light to make an entire rainbow and spectrum of everything that we want to see.

Isn't that amazing?

All right.

So grab a color, look through.

I think I'm gonna make everything purple.

If you have ever been to a play you may have noticed large lights that shine on the stage so we can see the actors, sets, costumes and the subtractive reflected colors.

A lighting designer can change the way things look on stage by using different colored lenses or filters.

Imagine if there were three spotlights one red, green and blue, then the additive colored lights could overlap making new colors on the stage around an actor.

If the actor stood in the middle of the beams then the lights would combine to white.

Amazing.

(happy music) - Are you curious about careers in science?

Hi, I'm Janelyn.

And today I'm with Chelsea Boodoo.

Chelsea, tell me, where are you and what do you do?

- I'm at East Lansing, Michigan where I'm studying for my PhD in biomedical engineering but also a producer and host of "The Sci-files" on Impact89 FM.

- What are "The Sci-files"?

"The Sci-files" is a science radio show and podcast where I highlight student research in a wide variety of fields at Michigan State University.

Our interviewees are students here at MSU.

Most of them have not been an radio station before so I also try to help them take big complicated science words and turn them into something that everyone from all ages can understand.

- What is your advice to kids particularly girls who are interested in pursuing STEM?

- My advice would be not to give up, stay curious and pursue what they're passionate about but also they should not forget to believe in themselves.

- Whether it's on TV or radio you can always tune in to learn more about careers in STEM.

Explore your possibilities.

(happy music) And now back to "Curious Crew".

(upbeat music) - Well, we have more evidence that we were observing secondary colors in the spinner like Julia and Gibson saw in the ice cubes and the mixing gel.

- Yeah.

And the spinner is been definitely part of the subtractive color system that is reflecting light of a certain color.

I think when it's spinning it's too hard for eyes to see the two colors in each ring so it basically combined the primary colors into a secondary one.

- And for the decoder message, I was thinking about how the filters color the light that passes through them.

- I noticed that too.

The white paper look red with the red filter but I also noticed that the red scribbles seem to go away when we looked through the red filter.

I wonder if the crayon marks only reflect or absorb the colored light of the filter.

(upbeat music) - So have you guys had fun learning about color science today??

- [All] Yeah.

- Awesome.

Well, know you've been working hard three of you in particular, trying to figure out these discrepant events that we did at the beginning.

So what have you come up with so far on these phenomenon?

Finney?

- So we have figured out that when you spin the wheel with the colors on it the primary colors blur together into secondary colors.

- Oh, good thinking, you guys.

And so I was actually purposely trying to use primary colors on these spinners and so we can blur them together.

Now, the reason that happens is our eyes cannot actually detect those different colors when it's moving so fast and so our brain does a little shortcut and combines the colors.

Now I'm gonna show you on this wheel because it's even more obvious.

You'll see, I've got a lot of colors in there.

So I'm gonna wind this up just like I did before and give it a little spin.

And you'll see what I mean about the different colors that we're gonna get out of this.

Isn't that amazing?

You'll see some orange coming out there, you'll see some lavender.

Isn't that cool?

Okay.

So I'm gonna set that down for just one minute and now let's go to this decoder message.

What'd you guys figure out there, Rishabh?

- Well, we know that we see combinations of colors or red, green and blue light, but we could only see that the filters only pass through certain colors.

That's why the white paper looked red through the filter.

- We noticed that the darker filter hid the blue crayon message but when the red light got through the blue crayon absorbed the red color and made it darker and easier to see.

- Okay, good job, you guys.

So when I placed this red filter on here, you're right, the paper does look red over here because that's the light that's being transmitted.

The other colors are actually being absorbed.

And so the only light that's getting through is the red.

Now what's really interesting is of course, when we use the green filter everything's disappearing.

Well, let's think about why.

We can see that scribble but it depends on how we actually make the marks.

The message I wrote in a blue crayon and then I scribbled over it with a red ink pen and then I scribbled some more over it with this yellow highlighter.

Now both the pen and the highlighter will transmit light.

But as far as the crayon, it's actually going to reflect the red light that comes in.

And so it actually gets even darker.

Now what's fascinating is when we put this green light on there that blue crayon disappears and then we can hide the red marks and the yellow highlighter and we can reveal that hidden message.

Pretty cool.

Nice thinking today, you guys.

Very, very clever.

Hope you had fun learning about color science and remember my friends?

- [All] Stay curious.

- And keep experimenting.

Get your curiosity guide and see more programs at wkar.org.

(upbeat music) - Support for "Curious Crew" is provided by MSU Federal Credit Union offering a variety of accounts for children and teens of all ages while teaching lifelong saving habits.

More information is available at msufcu.org.

Also by the Consumer's Energy Foundation dedicated to ensuring Michigan residents have access to world-class educational resources.

More information is available at consumersenergy.com/foundation.

Consumer's Energy Foundation, supporting education and building sustainable communities in Michigan's hometowns.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

- You got this.

- Come on, let's dance.

Come on, let's dance.

Yeah, curious.

(upbeat music) - Hello.

- Gibson's got movies right now.

He's got the moves.

(upbeat music) Perfect.

You got a perfect from Tim.

I never get a perfect from Tim.

Lucky.

(mellow music)