if black is all colors and white is no colors what is gray?
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White light is presence of all colors. (you see additive color)
Painted surfaces are white light hitting the paint and reflecting only the color you see and absorbing the rest. (you see reflected colors that have not been subtracted/absorbed). The by product of absorption is heat. That is why we paint things white we do not want heated (reflected light) up in the summer and things black (solar panels) that we do.
Black absorbs all color.
White will reflect all color.
Shine a blue light on white paint it will look blue. Because it has only got one color spectrum of light to reflect, change the light to white and it will be white. Reflecting all the colors.
Shine a white light on a blue surface it will be blue. Because that paint color based onthe chemical make up of that paint will absorb everything but the blue spectrum of color and reflect only blue. Change the light to red and that blue surface will look black. Change the light to blue and the surface will look blue.
This is why when you are in a “dark room” with a red light you only see one spectrum of color there is no other light color to reflect but red. Thus everything is either a shade of red or black.
Light is the presence of color. Paint is the reflection of color that is not absorbed. Don’t get me started on glass.
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