Faldoni, parts 2732 - 2735

 2732. But the word “complement,” in color theory is used in the mathematical sense. In this regard, the word complement means to make up the difference and to arrive at a total as, for instance, 10 is made up of 4 and the complement of 6. Or then again, the band needed 40 players, they had thirty and the 10 brass players made up the complement. 

 2733. Now I have to explain how a color can be a complement or another color.  How is it that a color can make up a difference so that a total is achieved? Here is the explanation. There are three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. These are called primaries because you can’t mix then from other colors, you have to have those three to begin with. The three primaries plus back and white can be mixed to make all of the colors.

 2734. Next come the secondary colors, the secondaries are green, orange, and purple. Each of the secondaries are created by mixing two of the primaries together, and so red and blue make purple, blue and yellow make green, and red and yellow make orange. 

2735. Now, if you will recall the experiment with the flag. When a person looks at red, the after image is green, but green is actually blue and yellow, and so we see that the red image combined with the green image makes red yellow and blue, the three primaries.