How does color affect heat loss?

Answer 1

Rather than thinking of them as absorbers of heat, darker colors are better absorbers of light and thereby become better radiators of heat.

Consider the following:

The color of an object depends on the wavelengths of colors reflected from the object. A red apple is red because red wavelengths in white light are reflected and other wavelengths are absorbed. If a red apple were to be illuminated by light that had no red wavelengths, the apple would appear almost black.

When a black object is illuminated by white light, all wavelengths are absorbed and none are reflected -- that's why the object appears black. When light is absorbed by a black object, the energy carried by the light doesn't just disappear. Rather, it raises the energy of the object doing the absorbing. The object, in turn, releases the absorbed energy by emitting longer wavelength, lower energy infrared (heat). This transformation of light into heat is the key to understanding the process because it accounts for the law of conservation of energy. Light just doesn't disappear when it strikes a black object, it's transformed into another kind of radiation that is either radiated from or retained within the black object.

The darker the object, the better its emission of heat because, it is a better absorber of light.

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy00/phy00156.htm

Answer 2

First, I have to explain something, just in case you don't know.

Color is determined by what parts of light an object reflects and which it absorbs.

Light is composed of three MAIN colors, blue, red, and green (the primary colors of light, not to be confused with the primary colors of pigment, which are blue, red and yellow). All colors are made up of a mixture of a certain amount of each of these colors. Yellow light, for example, is made up of 50% green light and 50% blue light.

Something that appears to be yellow, therefore, is absorbing the red light, and reflecting the green and blue light. Your eye sees the reflected light, so the object appears to be green.

Something that appears to be white reflects all light, something that appears to be black absorbs all light.

So something that is black is absorbing all light that hits it, and this light is turned into heat, which makes the black object heat up.

White objects reflect all light (or almost all), so they do not heat up nearly as quickly as black objects.

Answer 3

Color doesn't affect the absorption of heat per se, but it does affect the absorption of light which is dissipated as heat. So darker colors feel hotter, but the extra heat is actually from extra light absorption.

Answer 4

the color of an object depict the amount of energy loss,through radiative co efficient objects that are real black have 0 value,while whites have 1

Answer 5

Color plays the part of retaining or reflecting heat. Dark colors tend to retain more heat, hence objects with such colors will heat up faster compared to those with bright colors.