One of the most iconic images 2002 Korea Football World Cup is the coach of the Spanish national team, Jose Antonio Camacho, with bright fences on the shirt at armpit height. Nervousness during the games played a cruel joke on him, which did not go unnoticed by the press. And although it seems quite normal to all of us, if you think about it, it is quite curious. Why were dark circles visible if the sweat is transparent? Or why wet sand is darker? Why do we have to wait until it dries to know the exact color of the painting? After all why wet things are darker?
Perhaps you have never asked yourself this question, but perhaps now the doubt has arisen. Although the truth is that he should rephrase the question, since it is not true that wet things are darker. They are exactly the same as dried, but we see them as such.
As always when we talk about color, we need to look at how light is reflected and absorbed on surfaces. This is a setting that changes and makes wet clothes darker. But let’s see what is the reason.
A color ‘trick’ that makes wet clothes appear darker
When light hits the surface some of it is absorbed and some is reflected. The color we see is the result of the reflection of wavelengths and therefore the ability to reach our eyes.
If all, or nearly all, is consumed, we shall see black and if the opposite happens, the result will be a color white. All colors are in the intermediate point. Therefore, if, for example, we look at a red shirt, it will be because radiation with this wavelength is reflected.
Water absorbs some of the radiation that would be reflected if the surface were dry.
Color also depends on the composition of these surfaces, as this will affect the behavior of the light. For this reason, in order to obtain new colors, they often play with the introduction of new substances or the size of their molecules. And, of course, a dry surface is not the same as a surface with water. If we go back to the red shirt we had before, just in case it gets wet or the person wearing it sweats, we can see it. darker.
This is because water absorbs even more radiation than a dry shirt, so less light will be reflected back to us. So to speak, we are closer to black, and this makes it look darker.
And that goes for everyone wet things. For example, as we said at the beginning, when we paint a wall and the paint is still wet, we need to wait for it to dry to see how it will look. This is because it still has a lot of water in it. Until it evaporates, we won’t see the light bouncing off of it from here on out.
But the wall is exactly the same. It is not the color that changes, but what our brain tells us based on what is sent to it. our eyeyes So no, Camacho’s shirt was not darker. We just saw her like that, although, of course, in her day it would not have been a consolation.
Source: Hiper Textual
