Question

10. Explain the reason why pure copper (Cu) has a very distinct reddish color (or appearance).

Answer 1

Copper has a distinct red-orange(reddish) color. The reason is that any object is colored is that the object absorbs some wavelengths of light and reflects other wavelengths of light, when light is shined upon copper metal, the copper atoms absorb some of the light in the blue-green region of the spectrum . When an object absorbs one color of light, its complementary color is reflected back to our eyes. Since blue-green light is absorbed, its complementary color, red-orange, is reflected. Hence copper appears a red-orange color which is reddish color.