How do we see different colours on objects? Is it the way light shines on it?If so how do they not look the same.

Question: How do we see different colours on objects? Is it the way light shines on it?If so how do they not look the same.
- Keywords:
  colour,
  light,
  object
Asked by SectumSarzzies to Dervil, Saoirse, Stephen on 17 Nov 2016.
- Stephen Davitt answered on 17 Nov 2016:
  
  First great question! Second you nearly have the answer there, it’s not so much the way light shines on the the item but more so how the light interacts with it.
  
  When light hits a material three things happen, reflection, transmission, absorption.
  
  Reflection is an easy one to think of, light bounces off the material
  
  Transmission is when light passes through the material
  
  Absorption is when the light doesn’t reflect or pass through but gets stuck inside the material.
  
  Now on to why we see materials as different colours… if all colours of light hit a material the colour we see the colour of the material as the colour of light that is reflected, the rest of the colours are transmitted or absorbed.
  
  So the colour of a material isn’t actually its real colour but the colour that reflects off it

Question: How do we see different colours on objects? Is it the way light shines on it?If so how do they not look the same.