Why do darker colors absorb more heat than lighter colors?
This is a good question, I answered this a few days ago, so its still fresh. Each previous answer was close in some respect, but it is more specifically the atoms that make up a chemical or pigment that will determine the amount of energy retained and emitted and as a result, the color that we see. Each specific atom or combination of atoms can absorb a variety of energy types, however each atom has a specific amount of energy at a specific frequency that it is allowed to emit or “reflect” back outward. When the photonic or light energy is absorbed by the atoms that make up the paint, the electron shells of those atoms expand. Each atom will eventually pull the electron shells back in where they belong into their original place. When that happens, a specific amount of the absorbed energy is emitted or released by the atom. That is the energy that we see as light, and the frequency or color, tells us what type of atom it came from. The atoms that make up paint that we view as a dark col
