Learn more physics!
Q:
What is the most common color of car that would attract more heat in the sun then any oter, and why?
- Amber (age 12)
Barren County Middle School, Kentucky
A:
Amber -
Think about this... What color of sweatshirt do you
imagine would be the warmest? Think about what happens when the
sunlight hits the shirt... Some of it bounces off and some of it is
absorbed by the shirt. The part that is absorbed translates into heat
that warms you up. So what color absorbs the most light?
Well,
when you look at a color, what you see is only the part of the light
that bounces off and comes back towards your eyes. So if a sweatshirt
is red, that means that the red light bounces off and all the other
colors from the sunlight (which is a mixture of all the colors) are
absorbed. How about blue? Well, a blue sweatshirt bounces blue light
back at you and absorbs everything else.
So let's sum up...
We're looking for the warmest color - the one that absorbs the most
heat - the one that absorbs all the colors - the one that reflects none
of the light back to your eye - the one where you see no color. So
which color is the one made up of no colors? Look at this list and I'll
bet you can figure it out:
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple
White
Black
Got it yet? If you're still confused, check out the answers to these other questions:
Colours! Theories about Color Color vs. Heat Insulating for Heat-Tamara
(published on 10/22/2007)
Follow-up on this answer.
