<AREA SHAPE=RECT COORDS="8,329,22,345" HREF="!Light strikes the surface of a paint layer containing blue and yellow pigment particles. Some light is reflected as glare, and the rest penetrates the paint.">
<AREA SHAPE=RECT COORDS="221,329,237,345" HREF="!Light strikes a yellow particle, which absorbs, or subtracts, the light of short wavelengths and reflects the light of longer wavelengths.">
<AREA SHAPE=RECT COORDS="432,331,447,344" HREF="!Light strikes a blue particle, which absorbs light of long wavelengths. Medium wavelengths are reflected from the paint and appear green to our eyes.">
When light strikes <I>pigments</I> (coloring particles) in paint, the pigments absorb, or subtract, certain wavelengths of light and reflect others. In paint containing a mixture of different pigments, each pigment subtracts different wavelengths. Because the color we see depends on what wavelengths have been subtracted, producing colors by mixing pigments is called <I>color by subtraction.</I><NP>
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World Book illustration</P>
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