Eli5: Why do things have the colors they have? I know that colors are just different wave lenghts, but why does an egg yolk for example reflect the waves that make it yellow? Why isnt it for example reflecting green waves? I dont understand how things “decide” what kind of light they reflect.
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The simplest answer is: The materials are just better at absorbing some wavelengths and reflecting others. For a simplified, layman’s way of thinking about it, it’s not too much different than how a filter with different sized holes can let some particles through and not others.
In reality though it’s quantum mechanics and complicated material science. Sometimes it is like a filter, with certain wavelengths fitting through and some not, sometimes it’s electron shells absorbing and re-emitting light, and a whole bunch of other weird reasons that also change depending on if you’re talking about dielectric vs. non-dielectric materials. Cool stuff if you’re into it (I used to work as a 3D graphics programmer and did a fair amount of work in physically based light transport and loved learning about it), but far beyond ELI5.
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