eli5: why do darker colours absorb more heat?

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eli5: why do darker colours absorb more heat?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

* Darker colors absorb more *light* which then gets converted to *heat*.
* Why do they absorb more light?
* First let’s ask why anything absorbs light.
* The answer is because the frequency of the light wave matches the natural frequency of the electrons that makeup the object.- So the electrons take some of the energy of the lightwave and use it to start shakin’
* The reason some objects do this more than others (and hence are darker) is because they have a wider variety of stuff so that more frequencies of light will get absorbed.
* This is why if you slowly add more and more different colors of paint together you end up with a darker and darker color until ultimately you get ‘black’.

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