Science · 6 pages · 12 min
Why a black shirt heats faster in the sun
Black absorbs more of the sunlight, and the energy it keeps becomes heat in the cloth.
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From the opening
A black shirt heats faster in the sun because it absorbs more of the incoming visible light instead of reflecting it. The energy that stays in the fibers becomes thermal motion, so the cloth temperature rises. The opening covers absorbed light becomes thermal motion, why white reflects the same sun, and near infrared is not visible color.
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Inside
- Absorbed light becomes thermal motion
- Why white reflects the same sun
- Near infrared is not visible color
- The hot cloth also loses heat faster
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Solar absorptivity and visible reflectance
- Kirchhoff relation of absorption and emission