Black is said to absorb all colors of light, so why can a black surface be reflective, such as a black painted car.
In: Physics
Light can bounce off of surfaces like a ball. When it hits the surface in an angle from the left, it bounces with the same angle to the right. If all light bounces like this, you can see a reflection. This is how mirrors bounce light.
Light can also scatter all around to all directions. A very white surface may bounce almost all the light but you won’t see a reflection because the light bounces to all directions and the “reflection” becomes blurry.
Now, a perfectly black material wouldn’t bounce any light at all but it it impossible to make a perfectly black surface. Surfaces can be very dark but not black. If the black sufrace bounces the small amount of light like a mirror, it looks shiny.
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