Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I so need help with my project.Tell Me if it is a good topic.

anybody know anything

"What color light shines brightest through fog" is an interesting question.

The perception of light and colors by human eyes will vary by person. For example, there are color blind people who can't tell the difference between some colors. The amount of ambient light will affect the size of the pupil and affect sight and perception. Fog tends to scatter light from all sources so if there are multiple light sources the perception problem is changed because the human perception has to be able to discern the desired light source out of the conflicting light sources.

Have you done any research on your own into the typical color response of the human eye?

The intensity of light produced by different light sources in any color / frequency range will differ so coming up with a way of eliminating this factor from your experiment will require some thought and possibly equipment.

One way to attempt to measure color light sources in the visible range would be to use a digital camera. If you decide to use one, you need to read up on "color temperature balance". Digital cameras often have a setting for white balance where you tell it what light source you are using so the color perception in the images comes close to what the average human eye would see viewing the original scene.

You probably are going to have to come up with some "simulated fog" in order to do any experiments. You should do some research in this area as well. Beware that simulated fog and real life fog situations may not have the same light transmittance and scattering properties at all color frequencies/wavelengths.

I've thrown a lot of terms at you and if you want to proceed with a science project in this area, you should look them up and research them enough to understand them.

I did a quick search using Google with the search term "fog lights" and found a reference to selective yellow. You may want to check on it too.