Matter & Chemistry · Signature experience

When do two paints become one color?

Choose two digital paints, make a prediction, then use your finger or mouse to stir the streaks and swirls yourself.

What should you look for?

Paint pigments absorb some wavelengths of light and reflect others. The reflected light is the color that reaches your eyes.

Screens add red, green, and blue light. Paint mixing changes which parts of the incoming light can still be reflected.

Stirring pushes pigment in many directions. Advection stretches streaks, while small-scale spreading makes the concentration more even.

This is a digital-paint prediction using a spectral Kubelka–Munk model. Real paint can differ with pigment, binder, thickness, and manufacturer.

Choose an idea before the dish and result are revealed.

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