Hooked on Science: Disappearing color wheel

Materials

• CD
• Marble
• Glue
• Scissors
• Paper
• Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet crayons

Instructions

STEP 1: Using the CD, create a circle on the paper. Create seven equal segments in the circle. Color each segment with a different color. Cut out your color wheel.

STEP 2: Glue the color wheel to the CD. Glue the marble in the hole in the center of the CD.

STEP 3: Once dry, hold the marble, spin the color wheel and observe.

Explanation

As you quickly spin the color wheel, the colors disappear, and white appears. It's hard for your eyes to identify and separate each color as the color wheel is quickly spinning. As a result, your brain perceives this combination of colors as white light.