Why is everything darker when it's wet?

Answer 1

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 2

That is a very good question, and the short version of the answer is that wetness cuts down light scattering. It just so happens that on "wet" days, it tends to be overcast, thus darker, and the wet surfaces exaggerate the darkness because we're used to seeing surfaces that more uniformly scatter sunlight. A fairer comparsion would be to check out a scene, when it's dry, and when it's wet, on a clear sunlit day. What you will find is that wet surfaces appear to be "richer" in color because there's less surface light scattering, which tends to saturate the emissive colors of the surface. This is the reason why photographers and filmakers frequently "wet their scenes" to impart color richness in their shots. It's just like washing the windows to get a clearer view, and notice that if the windows are very dirty, they appear brighter when viewed from the inside out. The fine dirt on the window causes light scattering which saturates the colors of your view outside.

Answer 3

there are two possibilities.
1. if the substance can soak or absorb water. the water molecules which are relatively smaller than the substance molecules will fill in the gaps between the substance
Thus, when light is shined, the water between each reflects light in a different manner and the substance looks more smooth and darker since almost all the surface are reflecting.

2. if the substance does not absorb water, than, a layer of water stays on the surface and this causes refraction and reflection, thus less light enters into your eye and so it looks darker.

Although I have an answer, an actual physicist must answer to get a definite answer.

Answer 4

The water or the liquid in the object will reflect light in a weird direction, making it appear to be darker. Some sort of optical illusion.

Answer 5

when u put lip gloss on ur lips get a slightly darker color and if u put water on something it covers it object and makes it shine.. so that is y its darker

Answer 6

because light hits it diferently