How Does Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains How We See Colors Work?

We see colors because light bounces off things and goes into our eyes, telling us what they look like.

Imagine you have a box full of different colored marbles, red, blue, green, yellow. Each marble has its own special way of shining when you shake the box. Now think of your eye as another marble that can catch these shiny signals.

When light hits something, it acts like it's picking up some marbles from the box and sending them to our eyes. Our eyes then send this message to our brain, which says, "Oh, I see red!" or "blue!" depending on which marbles came through.

If you mix red and blue light, your brain might say, "That looks like purple!", just like mixing red and blue paint makes purple. It’s like having two different colored marbles in the same box; when they both shine at once, we see a new color altogether.

Sometimes things look darker or lighter because of how many marbles are shining through, more marbles mean brighter colors, fewer means softer ones. That’s why a red apple looks different from a green one, each has its own special set of marbles to share with your eye and brain!