How do you answer the question: "is white a colour?" for a 4 yr old?

[ejt1764]

title says it all really - don't want to lie, but can't think how to tell him without completely confusing him!

[Tutter]

you can tell i'm not a scientist

i'd just say yes

when he's older you can explain (if you're a better woman than me)

[beansprout]

Just say yes for now. Most adults still think black and white are colours!! They appear in all the books as colours so it's hardly the worst white lie (geddit) you will ever use!

[Gobbledigook]

At 4 years old I'd just say yes it's a colour.

[Gobbledigook]

If you have a white top on and you say 'what colour is this?' you're just going to want them to say 'white' aren't you?!

[singersgirl]

It depends what he wants to know. If he is interested in how we see colours, and what we mean by colour, then you could explain.
But "white" is, after all, a "colour", in the sense of "What colour paint do you want?" or "What colour T-shirt would you like to wear?" So it's not wrong to tell him it is a colour.

[singersgirl]

Cross-posted with GDG!

[Flamesparrow]

He's 4!!!! Yes its a colour!

[Blandmum]

While light contains light of all the other colours in the rainbow!

Things look different colours because they relect light of that colour, which then enters your eye.

So red things reflect light in the red wave length.

[ejt1764]

Thanks for your responses ... this has come about after seeing a rainbow (of all things) ... however, I think I'll follow your advice, and worry about the technicalities later (or let somebosy else do it!)

[Blandmum]

when you see a rainbow, the white light is split into the different wavelengths when the light passes through rain drops.....which is why you see rainbows when it is sunny and raining at the same time.

[cornsilk]

White is a tint that can be added to colours to make them brighter. That's what I have always told my ds's. Not too difficult to understand!

[Blandmum]

ejt....your son asked a really good question, based on an observation of a real life even....a scientist in the making! Well done that boy!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ejt1764]

thanks for that mb ... ds carries on asking if he's not satisfied with the response - on this occasion, I've told him I'm going to ask somebody who knows and then I'll try to explain it to him so he can understand ... it's exhausting!

[Blandmum]

You have to be very careful and distinguish between colour in Art and colour in physics!

[Blandmum]

My poor kids get me being their ears! You can never win!

[ejt1764]

the original question was: "Why does a rainbow not have white brown and black in it?"

I can explain brown and black, but got myself tangled up in knots with white - I understand the fundamentals myself, but not so clearly that I can explain to ds!

[Flamesparrow]

Ooooooooooooooh - with the original question, yup it needs the science.

[Blandmum]

ohh fantastic question.

NB this explanation is about light and not paint

Light exsists in different wavelenghts. The different wavelenths react with cells in the back of the eye, and we percieve them as different colours.

The colours of the rainbow are R O Y B I V

and each one of these has a different 'range' of wavelenths. Waves exsis above and below these but we can't see them....intra red and ultra violet for example. But there is no Brown wavelenth. Brown is seen when an object reflects red and blue light and yellow (probably). Our brain 'decodes' that as says....this is brown

Our eyes can only detect colour because the different wavelenths trigger the receptors in the back of the eye, ro differening degrees, and our brain puts the information together.

[Blandmum]

and white light is made up of all the different wavelenths added together. so the sunlight is white light......and the rain droplets spilt it into all the different colour wavelenths that make it up.

Things look white, because the object reflects all wevelenths. Things look black, because black objects absorb all wavelents.

Light and pain are different things!

[Blandmum]

light and paint!!!!

[katelyle]

Haven't read the whole thread, but don't forget to do that fab thing with a rainbow coloured spinner that goes white when you spin it! My dcs love that!

[ejt1764]

MB - thank you so much - that is a fab answer ... just need to print it out now and refer to it when doing the explanation!