Why does darker colors attract more heat than brighter colors?

Question

i own a black car and when it gets hot and the sun is out it gets so so so hot in the car. why is this?

Answer 1

Alright, so it totally blew my mind when I learned this in Bio, but what happens is that there is a color spectrum. Now each color reflects a certain amount of light. Black isn't one of the colors, in fact, it is none of them. Because of that, it does not reflect but absorbs all heat.

Answer 2

You bet they do, dark colours do retain the heat more. Lighter colours can reflect heat and there fore remain cooler.

Answer 3

light colors reflect dark colors absorb

Answer 4

Lighter color reflect light, darker ones "absorb" it.  In this case "light" is radiant energy from the sun that is converted to heat.

Answer 5

Because lighter colors can reflect the light, while darker ones just absorb it.

Answer 6

light colors reflect light hence heat

dark color absorb  light hence heat

Answer 7

darker colors hold in the heat.

Answer 8

WHITE reflects all the light.  BLACk absorbs all Light.

If a color is closer to white it reflects some amount of heat.

if its closer to black(like dark blue) it absorbs most of the light

Light has heating effect.

Answer 9

because the sun reflects off of brighter surfaces better than dark surfaces

Answer 10

Dark colors don't attract heat -- they absorb or hold it instead of reflecting it.

Answer 11

they both attract the same, dark colors just absorb heat whereas light colors reflect them.

Answer 12

The reason dark colors are dark is that they

absorb light instead of reflecting it (like lighter colors).  Since light is energy, absorbing light makes something hotter.

Answer 13

Its all about wave lengths.  What happens is the darker colors "absorb" more of the light energy thats why it gets hotter.  The lighter colors "bounce" more of the light off (instead of "absorbing" them) thats why they look brighter..

Answer 14

Its a matter of reflection

Darker color absorb more heat, whereas lighter (not brighter) color reflects more heat.

Answer 15

Light and bright colors reflect the sun, causing it to be cooler, dark colors absorb the suns rays.  Try using some of those reflector Shields people put in their windows.

Answer 16

cuz lighter colours kinda bounce off the heat more.

there is a scientific explanation... i just don't know it