White materials reflect a large amount of visible light. Black materials absorb a large amount of visible light. Therefore, darker materials will absorb more solar energy than lighter materials.
Full Answer
Which object will absorb the most light?
- Quantum structure of the material.
- On the most basic level light can only be absorbed or not. The absorption is governed by allowed quantum transitions in material. ...
- If the light is not absorbed, it has three basic options:
- reflection (bouncing back in a predictable way)
- diffusion (scattering, bouncing in kind of unpredictable way
What material absorbs or reflects light?
reflective materials, such as aluminum foil and the mirror, to reflect the light solid, non-transparent materials, such as wax paper, body parts, notebook paper and cardboard paper, to absorb the light materials that have varying degrees of transparency, such as plastic saran wrap and tissue paper, to transmit the light
What objects reflect light best?
- socks
- tennis balls
- biscuits
What materials can transmit light?
solid, non-transparent materials, such as wax paper, body parts, notebook paper and cardboard paper, to absorb the light; materials that have varying degrees of transparency, such as plastic saran wrap and tissue paper, to transmit the light; the lighter colored tissue paper to most likely transmit more light than the darker colored tissue paper; materials such as cheeks and notebook paper to transmit some light, although most likely absorbing most of the light
What type of material absorbs light?
Coal, black paint, and carbon nanotube arrays -- also known as Vantablack -- look black because they absorb the energy of the incident light almost completely. Other materials, such as glass or quartz, have no absorbing properties and therefore look transparent.
What materials can reflect and absorb light?
White materials reflect a large amount of visible light. Black materials absorb a large amount of visible light. Therefore, darker materials will absorb more solar energy than lighter materials.
What material best absorbs light?
Vantablack (Vertically Aligned Nanotube Array BLACK) can absorb 99.965 percent of ultraviolet (UV), visible and infrared (IR) light.
What materials can reflect light?
Light reflecting factor materials.MaterialReflection Factor (%)Aluminum, anodized, matte80 - 85Aluminum, matte55 - 75Aluminum, polished65 - 75Aluminum, pure, highly polished80 - 8740 more rows
What are the examples of absorb light?
For example, grass appears green in white light: red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo and violet are absorbed by the grass. green light is reflected by the grass and detected by our eyes.
What can reflect sunlight?
Snow and ice, airborne particles, and certain gases have high albedos and reflect different amounts of sunlight back into space. Low, thick clouds are reflective and can block sunlight from reaching the Earth's surface, while high, thin clouds can contribute to the greenhouse effect.
Does wood absorb light?
Wood is opaque to visible light. Some materials are opaque to some wavelengths of light, but transparent to others. Glass and water are opaque to ultraviolet light, but transparent to visible light. By which wavelengths of light are absorbed by a material, the material composition and properties can be understood.
Does metal absorb light?
Metals are known for having high reflectivity, which explains their shiny appearance. Since the reflectance of light by metals is high their absorption is low because the sum of both must correspond to 100% of the incident light.
What does it mean when an object is selectively absorbing light?
When this occurs, objects have a tendency to selectively absorb, reflect or transmit light certain frequencies. That is, one object might reflect green light while absorbing all other frequencies of visible light. Another object might selectively transmit blue light while absorbing all other frequencies of visible light.
What is the term for a sheet of paper that is illuminated with white light?
The diagrams depict a sheet of paper being illuminated with white light ( ROYGBIV ). The papers are impregnated with a chemical capable of absorbing one or more of the colors of white light. Such chemicals that are capable of selectively absorbing one or more frequency of white light are known as pigments.
What happens to the vibrations of an object when it is transparent?
If the object is transparent, then the vibrations of the electrons are passed on to neighboring atoms through the bulk of the material and reemitted on the opposite side of the object. Such frequencies of light waves are said to be transmitted.
What happens when an object is opaque?
If the object is opaque, then the vibrations of the electrons are not passed from atom to atom through the bulk of the material. Rather the electrons of atoms on the material's surface vibrate for short periods of time and then reemit the energy as a reflected light wave.
What happens when a light wave strikes a material with the same vibrational frequency?
If a light wave of a given frequency strikes a material with electrons having the same vibrational frequencies, then those electrons will absorb the energy of the light wave and transform it into vibrational motion.
Why do visible light waves reflect?
Reflection and transmission of light waves occur because the frequencies of the light waves do not match the natural frequencies of vibration of the objects. When light waves of these frequencies strike an object, the electrons in the atoms of the object begin vibrating.
How does visible light interact with objects?
The manner in which visible light interacts with an object is dependent upon the frequency of the light and the nature of the atoms of the object. In this section of Lesson 2 we will discuss how and why light of certain frequencies can be selectively absorbed, reflected or transmitted.
