Eli5 where does the colour go when light bleaches the colour from something

Question

My daughter has a Peppa pig dollhouse and I was looking at it just now, and I can see some of the yellow paint is faded and bleached by the sun. Eli5 where does the colour actually go?

In: 5

Answer 1

The other comments are taking about wavelengths and UV light, I’ll keep it simple.

The doll house reflected the Sun’s light in a certain way, which made it appear yellow.

The sunlight carries a lot of energy, and over time that energy changed the way the dollhouse reflects the sunlight, making it appear white.

So the colour didn’t go anywhere, the thing that changed is how the dollhouse reflects the light. It reflected back yellow light, now it reflects white light.