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Colors are explained to be what the object did not absorb (red backpack seen red because it absorbed green and blue and sent red reflecting ...red is in the air, blue and green in the item). Why can I change molecules around (add water i.e.) of the item that contains green and blue and still get the red dye color that supposedly did not exist in the backpack that are still in the air? Should not I get blue or green?
Question Date: 2018-04-29
Answer 1:

Interesting question, hopefully I understood exactly what you're saying.

I think the answer to your question is, no, it still should be red. But this is why - if you just add water to these molecules that make the bag red (we call these dyes, usually), the water does not chemically change what that dye is. The water only dissolves the dye. So, if the molecule is the same, it is still absorbing green and blue, and reflect red.

If that seems weird, think about when you dissolve sugar in water. You don't actually change the sugar, it only dissolves. If you heated up the sugar-water until all the water disappeared, you would only have sugar left - unchanged, because all the water that was there only dissolved the sugar, but did not chemically change the sugar.

However, there are things that will change color if you put them into water. If that happens, a chemical change happened, and the elements that make up the dye became different.



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