why do different materials reflect different wavelengths? Also does this mean that everything is actually colorless and color is a function of reflecting light only?
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Color is a human experience – it is what happens in your brain as a response to light. The same dress may be different colors to different people in different lightings.
Materials may reflect, pass, or absorb light. An uneven surface can turn reflection and passing into scattering – a white appearance.
Why a material may prefer to do one of these over another for specific frequencies depends on a ton of things. A common one is “does the energy of that frequency correspond to an energy level change in the material?”
For instance, CO2 molecules can vibrate a certain way, and this vibration carries the same energy as a 10,600 nm photon, so it will absorb those photons.
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