Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,
I am doing a project on "Will the afterimage be the same as the real image ?"
Also I took few trials by looking at a tricolored circle(red,blue and green in the real image) for 30 secs .The afterimage what I see is a circle with yellow,cyan ,and majenta.
I then noted which colors in the afterimage fades fast.My trials show that yellow color fades faster , followed by cyan and then majenta.
My question is "What is the scientific explanation for why some colors fade faster than others?" Is it because some cone cells recover faster than others?
I am looking for a valid reasoning and explanation behind this.Any help on this subject is highly appreciated.
Thanks.

That seems like a cool project! Have you read the project idea on afterimages? You can find it here https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary. The background for the project should give you the information you need, but just let me know if you have any more questions.
Good Luck!
Katie

Thank you for the reply.
It is from the link I got this project idea.
I went through the project background,but I couldn't find why yellow in my afterimage faded faster followed by cyan and majenta.
Is it because blue cone cells recover faster followed by red cone cells and then green cone cells?

Thanks.

Hi there,

scibuddy23178 wrote:I couldn't find why yellow in my afterimage faded faster followed by cyan and majenta.
Is it because blue cone cells recover faster followed by red cone cells and then green cone cells?

Yes, if you used the tri-color circle in the Science Buddies project, then your reasoning is correct. Your blue cone cells recovered fastest, followed by the red cone cells and then the green.

Nice job!

Heather