If water is clear, why when you get something wet it gets darker? like getting a shirt wet ??

Question

If water is clear, why when you get something wet it gets darker? like getting a shirt wet ??

Answer 1

Water will prevent the absorption of light to some extent.  The color spectrum that you see is based on the properties of the object you are observing.  Liquid changes those properties.

Answer 2

When an object is dry, light waves bounce off of it and our eyes pick up this light. The length of the light wave as it bounces off an object determines the color we perceive the object as being.

When an object is wet, water is embedded within that object, be it fabric, hair, fur, etc. In effect, the water creates a water-fabric mixture or water-fur mixture, etc. Now, water tends to scatter/bend/refract light waves in different directions (instead of straight to our eyes). So as a result, fewer light waves reach our eyes from the wet region. Less light reaching our eyes means it appears darker to us.

This phenomenon does not occur on surfaces that do not absorb water, such as plastic or glass. The water just sits on top of the surface and does not prevent light waves from reaching our eyes. So the surface's color appears normally, wet or not.

Answer 3

For a few reasons, but basically because the light bounces around in the water more, causing more of the light to be absorbed, and more light being absorbed means a darker appearance.