No, they are transparent. “Color” as would be defined by a child is a phenomenon resulting from white light having some of its spectrum absorbed by a surface, and the resulting visible light diffusely reflected and absorbed by their retinal cells. Even ignoring absorption of narrow frequency bands, individual atoms reflect far less than 1% of the light that encounters them. Color is a phenomenon that relies on the bulk effect of lots of atoms working together. In the same way, a drop of water looks transparent, but get enough of it together and it becomes shades of blue or green, and eventually almost black.
I would disagree. Elements have an emission spectrum and emit visible light when excited electrons drop to a more stable orbital. Hydrogen, for example, emits 4 wavelengths of visible light. You can see these ias bands in a Balmer Series. The atoms emit the light instead of reflecting light.
No, they are transparent. “Color” as would be defined by a child is a phenomenon resulting from white light having some of its spectrum absorbed by a surface, and the resulting visible light diffusely reflected and absorbed by their retinal cells. Even ignoring absorption of narrow frequency bands, individual atoms reflect far less than 1% of the light that encounters them. Color is a phenomenon that relies on the bulk effect of lots of atoms working together. In the same way, a drop of water looks transparent, but get enough of it together and it becomes shades of blue or green, and eventually almost black.
I would disagree. Elements have an emission spectrum and emit visible light when excited electrons drop to a more stable orbital. Hydrogen, for example, emits 4 wavelengths of visible light. You can see these ias bands in a Balmer Series. The atoms emit the light instead of reflecting light.