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color mixing

Mixing Red and Green: What Color Do They Make?

Red and green light make yellow in the standard additive-mixing example. Paint mixtures vary by pigment and proportion, while red and green filters can leave a very dark result.

By ThatPainter Team 2 min read
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It depends on what you mix. Red and green light shining together appear yellow. Red and green paint do not have one guaranteed result: the mixture is often muddy, brownish, or dark, depending on the pigments, proportions, and lighting. Red and green filters can leave very little light passing through, so their combined result may look nearly black.

What happens when red and green light mix?

When red and green light reach your eyes at the same time, they mix additively: the light from the two sources combines. In the standard color-mixing example, red and green light appear yellow. A University of California, Santa Barbara Department of Physics teaching unit describes red and green light projected together as yellow.

The exact appearance depends on the light sources. Their relative intensities and spectral distributions—the ranges of wavelengths they emit—can shift the perceived hue. So yellow is the expected teaching-example result, not a promise that every pair of devices will produce an identical yellow.

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What happens when you mix red and green paint?

Paint mixes differently because pigments absorb and scatter light rather than adding emitted light together. A red pigment and a green pigment each absorb some parts of the light shining on them; when mixed, their combined absorption and scattering determine what is reflected back to your eyes.

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Many red-and-green paint mixtures look muddy, brownish, or dark. But there is no single guaranteed color: the result depends on the particular pigments, their proportions, and the illumination. Two paints both labeled “red” and “green” can contain different pigments and produce different mixtures.

How do red and green filters compare?

Filters act on light passing through them. A red filter transmits red components while absorbing much of the rest; a green filter transmits green components while absorbing much of the rest. Put together, they can block much of the incoming light, leaving a very dark result in the idealized case.

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This is not the same as overlapping red and green light sources. The sources emit light that combines at the eye; filters selectively remove parts of light that was already there.

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Quick comparison

What is being mixed? How it behaves Likely result What can change it?
Red and green light Emitted light adds together Yellow in the standard teaching example Source spectra and relative intensities
Red and green paint Pigments absorb and scatter reflected light Often muddy, brownish, or dark; no fixed result Pigment formulations, proportions, and illumination
Red and green filters Filters subtract components from incoming light Very dark when little light passes through The filters’ transmission properties and incoming light
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How to compare the results yourself

  1. Compare light separately: shine red and green lights onto the same spot on a surface so their beams overlap. Observe the overlap, then adjust the sources’ relative brightness and notice whether the apparent hue changes.
  2. Compare paint separately: mix small samples of red and green paint, changing the proportions between samples. View each under the same illumination and on the same surface.
  3. Keep the comparison fair: do not treat the painted patch as equivalent to the overlapping beams. One reflects light after pigment absorption and scattering; the other combines emitted light.

The light demonstration has a standard predicted result—yellow—while the paint samples show how strongly pigment choice and mixture ratio affect the outcome.

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