Elicitation Questions for The Nature of Light

1. a) What are the primary colors used by painters?
b) What about those used by lighting designers?

2. a) Can you name the colors of the rainbow?
b) Which color is closest to the ground?

3. a) Do you know how to predict what color results from mixing paints together?
b) What about with lights?

4. Can you explain the colors seen when looking through a piece of stained glass?

The Contextual Problem

When our grandparents are unable to look after themselves, it is a major source of comfort to find caregivers who have their best interests at heart. The physical setting of a senior's life is as important to them as their emotional environment. And, color is an important element in the emotional setting.

The Situation: You are a consultant hired by the director of a seniors complex undergoing refurbishment. Your particular task is to determine if a standard institutional color scheme suggested by an interior decorating company is suitable to meet the emotional needs of seniors. This unit on color will give you the background to help you with your response. Realize that you must be familiar with many aspects of color. Be prepared to answer the knowledgeable interior decorators who may question both your own theoretical understanding and your suggestions. They might favor their scheme and be reluctant to incur the higher costs of customized work. Only a through grasp of color will give you the credibility needed to answer the decorators and the complex's director.

Questions:

1. Generally, seniors do not prefer dim lighting levels for dining. If a pleasant illumination is 90 lux, a lamp of what intensity is required in a ceiling fixture 1.2 m above the table?

2. Reading is a common form of enjoyment for seniors. A reading chair is located between two table lamps. The left hand lamp, 0.4 m from the chair, has a luminous intensity of 100 cd. To provide the same illumination, how far from the chair should the right hand, 145 cd lamp be placed?

3. Bright colors often have a positive effect on one's spirit. But, sometimes certain combinations of light and surface have unexpected results. What colors reflect from the following fabrics when illuminated by the following lights? Fill in the chart.

Incident light Fabric color Reflected color

yellow green

red yellow

green blue

4. The temperature inside the seniors' solarium is too high and someone suggests large sheets of green or yellow colored plastic be placed on the glass as shade. If seniors' skin health requires red and blue energies from the sun, would either of these colored sheets be suitable?

5. To set the mood at a party, colored flood lights are directed against the white sheers in front of a picture window. What happens when the following lights mix?
a) red + green b) magenta + green c) green + blue

6. During a seniors' art class, the instructor suggests decorating a hallway with a mural. What happens when the following paints are mixed?
a) red + cyan b) magenta + green c) yellow + cyan