Nonmetals

Physical

Nonmetals vary greatly in appearance, being colorless, colored or shiny. For the colorless nonmetals (hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and the noble gases), no absorption of light happens in the visible part of the spectrum, and all visible light is transmitted. The colored nonmetals (sulfur, fluorine, chlorine, bromine) absorb some colors (wavelengths) and transmit the complementary or opposite colors. For example, chlorine's "familiar yellow-green colour ... is due to a broad region of absorption in the violet and blue regions of the spectrum". The shininess of boron, graphite (carbon), silicon, black phosphorus, germanium, arsenic, selenium, antimony, tellurium, and iodine is a result of the electrons reflecting incoming visible light.