Editing Color Mixing (section)

== Why This Works ==

Light has ''Additive Colors'', meaning that the colors you see from light become brighter shades and hues. The reason why this happens is because the light waves don't cancel each other out. Instead, they ''add'' to each other, and blend together in a way that allows the original colors to be separated out. This is why you get white light when you mix all the colors in equal amounts; white light has all colors of light in it, and you can separate any color from white light! This is also why you can't have a true "black" light, because that would simply be no light! 

Pigments have ''Subtractive Colors'', meaning the colors will become darker shades and hues as they blend together. This is because pigments and paint will absorb all the colors except the color reflected. This means they ''subtract'' from the possible colors to reflect as they blend, and the original colors cannot be separated out once you blend them. black paint absorbs all colors because it has pigments for all colors in it. White paint reflects all colors because it has no color to it, and so it cannot absorb any!