Light is very important. We use light to see what shape, colour and size things are.

We see light in two ways:

• From things that produce light, like the sun, light bulbs, candles and fires.
• We see the light reflected off things that do not produce light, for instance walls, people and trees.

In this picture we can see direct light from the sun, and reflected light from the water and the ship.

Different things reflect light in different ways:

• a mirror will reflect all the light that hits it
• Grass reflects green light best
• Bananas reflect yellow light

This is why things are different colours.