ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Red pigments

Hello there! Today I'm going to explain to you what red pigments are and how they work.

Imagine you have a coloring book and you want to color a picture of a fire truck that looks red. In order to color it red, you need a substance that is red in color. That's where red pigments come in.

Red pigments are tiny particles that give things a red color. They can be found in many things in nature, like certain flowers and fruits. They can also be made by humans to use in things like paint and food coloring.

When you look at something that is red, it means that the red pigment particles are reflecting light in a certain way. Light is made up of different colors, and when it hits an object, some of those colors are absorbed by the object and some are reflected back to our eyes. When we see something as red, it means that the object is reflecting red light and absorbing other colors.

So when you color that fire truck with a red crayon, you're basically adding tiny red pigment particles to the picture. The more red pigment particles you add, the darker and more vibrant the red will be.

That's the basic idea of what red pigments are and how they work. It's pretty cool, right? So next time you see something that is red, you can impress your friends by telling them that it's all because of tiny pigment particles!