Why/How does a lawnmower create alternating colored stripes of grass?

2.43K views

Why/How does a lawnmower create alternating colored stripes of grass?

In: Other

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It lays the grass over in the direction you’re heading. so you’re looking at a bunch of grass leaning away from you on one pass, then the grass leaning back toward you on the next. (as you’ve turned the mower around to cut in the other direction)

Looking at the leaning away grass nets you a view of the side, which reflects light, looking at the grass leaning toward you nets you a view down into the grass leaves, which is darker.

Anonymous 0 Comments

As the mower goes over the grass it lays it down facing the direction of travel. If you go down and back you will get blades of grass pointed at you and away from you, this makes the stripes.

Side note, for professional fields they have striping kits with rollers to make the grass lay uniform to give you that professional ‘white and green’ look.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The direction that the grass is bent determines the “light” or “dark” colored stripe. When the blades of grass are bent away from you, the grass appears lighter in color because the light is reflecting off of the wide, lengthy part of the blade. When the blades of grass are bent towards you, the grass appears darker as you are looking more of the tips of the blades (a smaller reflective surface) and the shadows under the grass. So cutting a lawn in an opposing pattern (up/down, right/left, north/south, east/west etc) provides the most contrasting stripe effect. Interestingly, as the “color” of the stripe is dependant upon what direction you are looking at it from, a “light” colored stripe will appear “dark” if you view it from the opposing direction.