The term polychromatic is used in many fields of knowledge, such as design, architecture, or sculpture. However, it is a word that can refer to many different things depending on how and when it is applied.
The word’s origin comes from the Greek and means “many colors” and is generally used in disciplines such as art or architecture to designate works that have more than one color, unlike monochromatic ones.
However, in other fields such as physics, chemistry, botany, or medicine, it can mean different things, and that is why at FastlyHealwe are going to explain it to you.
Keep reading this article if you want to know the Definition of polychromatic.
Table of Contents
What does polychromatic mean
In medicine
In laboratory work, hematological stains are carried out to analyze cells and blood components. These stains are a series of processes that cause the coloring of all the structures that form and compose blood cells. This staining aims to enhance the contrast between cells and their surroundings, making them much more visible and easier to analyze at the microscopic level.
In observing these cells, some of which we can see are the polychromatic cells, round and between 10 and 12 micrometers. They are so-called because they are dyed in different colors, pink, orange, and lilac. Its nucleus is round, eccentric, and with a thick nuclear membrane. The chromatin is very lumpy, and the abundant cytoplasm varies between basophilic and perinuclear zones.
In physics
In the field of physics, we speak of polychromatic light, referring to white light, that which is composed of different waves of length, that is, that which contains all the colors of the spectrum.
When there is a sudden change of direction in the light path, refraction occurs, the propagation of light at different speeds depending on the medium through which it travels. As refraction is based on the energy of light, if white or polychromatic light is passed through a medium that does not have parallel faces, through a prism, the separation of light occurs in all its components, in all its colors.
A clear example of refraction that everyone has observed is the rainbow; when we can see all the colors that make up white light, it’s polychromy.
In art
In the art world, the adjectives polychromatic and monochromatic are used to distinguish those works of art that are made with a single color from those that have more than one color. A clear example of this difference is found in classical statues. These works, such as the Discobolus or the Doriphore, have traditionally been classified as monochromatic works since the only color observed on their surface is the broken white of the marble. However, recent analyzes of modern laser machinery have discovered that, in reality, these works were conceived in color; that is, they were polychromatic. However, the time has taken a toll on them, and now they have lost all their color.
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