Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My daughter is doing a science fair project on the topic of color fading: "Do all colors fade at the same rate?"

She was / has been unable to find research on this in the library or book store, and created her own testing methods using the variables of 2 different types of crayons, 2 types of markers, rubbing stamping ink, and construction paper. She is testing each of the above in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. She has tested them in cool running tap water; hot running tap water, in direct sunlight, in an overn at 425* for 5 minutes, and under lamp light.

Can you point us into the proper direction to find research?

Thank you for your assistance!

snaps2scrap

[quote="snaps2scrap"]My daughter is doing a science fair project on the topic of color fading: "Do all colors fade at the same rate?"

She was / has been unable to find research on this in the library or book store, and created her own testing methods using the variables of 2 different types of crayons, 2 types of markers, rubbing stamping ink, and construction paper. She is testing each of the above in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. She has tested them in cool running tap water; hot running tap water, in direct sunlight, in an overn at 425* for 5 minutes, and under lamp light.

Can you point us into the proper direction to find research?

Thank you for your assistance!


You might want to do a little research on the internet using a search engine, such as http://www.google.com or http://www.yahoo.com, or others. I did this and found several pages such as this one:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/colors.html which told me why colors fade, but I was not able to find research comparing the rate of fading between colors nor under conditions other than ultra violet lighting or sunlight.


I was able to find this information:
Because of photodegradation.

It is all about the chemical makeup of an object. The technical term for color fading is photodegradation. There are light absorbing color bodies called chromophores that are present in dyes. The color(s) we see are based upon these chemical bonds and the amount of light that is absorbed in a particular wavelength.

Ultraviolet rays can break down the chemical bonds and thus fade the color(s) in an object - it is a bleaching effect. Some objects may be more prone to fading, such as dyed textiles and watercolors. Other objects may reflect the light more, which makes them less prone to fade.