Re: Why are the colors on the newton color wheel different sizes?

Hey, *I* remember being confused about that as a child!

The sizes of the colored patches are different because the brightness of the colors have to be adjusted to match each other. Normal "off the shelf" ink is used to print the colors. Unfortunately the brightnesses of available colored inks are not all the same.

If the manufacturers of the color wheels were smart, they would alter the inks in order to give equal brightnesses. Maybe add a little black to the red, and add some white to the blue.

Another way to adjust the inks is to adjust their size on the color wheel. For example, if equal patches of color are used, and if the wheel is spun, maybe the "white" color is actually pink. Therefor we must reduce the size of the red color patch. But then maybe the "white" looks green. OK, then make the green color patch smaller. Keep adjusting and testing the wheel until the additive color looks white (or at least a colorless grey). But then all the colored patches are different sizes.

If you wish, I bet you could make your own color wheel with equally sized color patches. Use paint, and mix the paints just right until they give "white" when you spin the wheel. It might take a lot of work to mix colors, paint, and spin, over and over, until it comes out right.