"dark materials absorb more thermal energy than lighter colored materials"
Initially I thought this statement was very straight forward and obvious.... then someone mentioned that visible light photons do not produce heat when absorbed and that IR was the only component that would be translated into heat. This seems to be very counter intuitive to me
Here's my question:
Say I had a flat, smooth layer of some material that happened to be colored black. Say this material is very absorptive of all visible light frequencies.
If I was able to expose this material to an energy source that only generated visible light (400-700nm) would this material rise in temperature?
If yes, what is the mechanism that converts the photons into heat?
If not, then why would color even matter since all absorption/reflection of the heat producing frequencies occur in IR (or UV)?
Thanks for any clarification you can provide
Initially I thought this statement was very straight forward and obvious.... then someone mentioned that visible light photons do not produce heat when absorbed and that IR was the only component that would be translated into heat. This seems to be very counter intuitive to me
Here's my question:
Say I had a flat, smooth layer of some material that happened to be colored black. Say this material is very absorptive of all visible light frequencies.
If I was able to expose this material to an energy source that only generated visible light (400-700nm) would this material rise in temperature?
If yes, what is the mechanism that converts the photons into heat?
If not, then why would color even matter since all absorption/reflection of the heat producing frequencies occur in IR (or UV)?
Thanks for any clarification you can provide