why do things appear darker when wet?

Question

such as sand, hair, clothes, etc.... why do they suddenly appear darker when wet?

Answer 1

Light and the absorbsion or reflection there of.

We see things based on light being reflected and abosorbed off of it. Things are a certain color because certain elements of the the light spectrum are refelcted and some are absorbed by the object. Water will affect how light is absorbed or reflected. Some objects when wet will absorb more of the higher light spectrum while other objects will reflect more when wet.

Color (light or dark) is a property of light. Anything that will affect they way light reflects or absorbs will affect the color.

Hope this answers the question!

Answer 2

Good question. It's part of a paradox. Things look darker when wet. Therefore, there must be a change in albedo (reflectivity), so let's assume that. I believe the reason that happens is that water acts as a lens, allowing more light to enter ther material's pores to be absorbed. At the same time., I think it acts as a mirror, scattering some light away at different angles (Sometimes wet surfaces look shiny, correct?). That light is lost, decreasing the amount of light that is reflected. So in short, some of the lost light is probably absorbed into the surface through the lens effect, while other lost light is scattered by surface reflection. The net effect is then the 'darkening' that occurs.

There may also be a slight 'blue shift' in the color of the light from the water tendency to reflect blue from the sky, helping to make it appear darker.

The paradox is that It would appear materials get darker, which implies less light gets through. However, if that is so, why is it that you can see through a wet t-shirt? If more light is absorbed, you should not be able to. This is where I get my theory that the water acts as a lens, allowing light to pass between fibers, reflect off a surace, and come back out. Still, some light is lost through absorbtion in the material and the scattering effect, so even though it is semitransparent, it still looks 'darker'

Answer 3

even as something is dry, mild which hits it frequently scatters everywhere. it truly is non-specular mirrored image, and holds for most factors that are literally not sleek or meditated in visual attraction. Water makes an excellent specular reflector, once you moist something, the mild that hits the water, fairly than scattering everywhere, bounces off it as off a mirror. From maximum angles, you word a lot less mild, yet from some angles you get each and each of the centred mild from the mirrored image. the internet outcome is that maximum of the time issues that are moist look darker, because the mild that hits them isn't meditated rapidly at your eye. at times, they look a lot brighter, because the mild reflects at your eye. On typical, that's about a similar, the distribution is in basic terms lumpier. A moist mirror would not look darker than a dry mirror, the water can't extremely do something to regulate the problem.

Answer 4

When light strikes an object, some of it penetrates the object, and some of it is reflected and reaches your eye. When an object is wet, more light penetrates the object, so less light is reflected. As a result, less light reaches your eye and so the wet object looks darker.

Answer 5

Moist when wet and the sun rays fall on it- it looks black - this is physics

Answer 6

They absorb water and lose their reflectivity property

Answer 7

What colour are you when you are wet

Answer 8

its just the way it is