When light shines on a surface, some of the rays bounce back off. This is called reflection. Flat shiny surfaces, like glass, work the best for reflection. Although we usually think of light as colorless, it does appear in color. We can see the colors when light rays are separated as they pass through certain substances like water and glass.
Light appears in seven distinct colors known as a spectrum.
There are two other kinds of light rays which are not visible to the human eye. One is called ultraviolet, which is the light that causes you to tan or burn in the sun. The other one is infrared, and it is the light that warms you when you sit in the sun. Isaac Newton, an English physicist, was the first to realize that white light is actually made up of the colors of the rainbow. He discovered this by using a prism, which is a triangular piece of glass that can separate light rays.