Why is white skin more prone to sunburns when whiteness typically is better for reflecting light and not absorbing heat, compared to darkness?
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In terms of “reflection” / transmission vs absorption, ***the light which damages your skin*** **is UV** (short wavelength / higher frequency light), **which is absorbed by your layers of skin**. Your eyes cannot detect UV very well – it’s pretty much invisible.
If you mapped the absorption of the light by wavelength, you would see larger amounts of absorption at the shorter (invisible) wavelengths, and decreasing absorption at the lower = visible wavelengths of light. The (visible) light is uniformly not absorbed is reflected and therefore perceived by your eyes as a general “white” light.
The effect of melanin is to absorb ALL wavelength of light UV and visible, so what is “seen” is a lack of light – “darkness”, depending, of course on the concentration of melanin.
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