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I am a middle school student and did an experiment on the effect of different colors on solar energy. My hypothesis was that if you know the Light Reflectance Values of specific paint colors, you can predict how they will relate to each other in regard to the temperature they will reach in sun light...the higher the LRV, the cooler the temperature because more light is being reflected off the object. I had found many experiments comparing black and white and claiming the difference in their temperatures was due to white reflecting more light than black, so I thought I could expand that to colors in between the two as well. I was wrong and am trying to find out why. Can you help? Thanks, Alexandra Owens owenssf@worldnet.att.net ----- Hi...I know a question on "color vs. heat absorption" is answered on your site because it was where I got the idea for my hypothesis. But, it only deals with the colors: black and white and states the differences in temperatures when exposed to sunlight are due to the differences in LRVs (light reflectance values). I thought it explained the reason for the differences very clearly. That is why I conducted an experiment on different colors - red, blue, orange, green and yellow- using a paint company that provided the specific LRV for each color sold and expected the same result posted on MadSci Network...the lower the LRV, the hotter the color should become. My result was there was no correlation between LRV and color. The order I got in increasing temperatures was blue (LRV 17), red (LRV 11), green (LRV 17), orange (LRV 28) and yellow (LRV 29). I was very careful to insure color was my only variable and repeated the test numerous times. So....please help me to understand why your LRV explanation does not apply to other colors. Thank you for your time. Alexandra Owens owenssf@worldnet.att.net
Response:
Re: color vs heat absorption--effect of different colors on solar energy I am a middle school student and did an experiment on the effect of different colors on solar energy. My hypothesis was that if you know the Light Reflectance Values of specific paint colors, you can predict how they will relate to each other in regard to the temperature they will reach in sun light...the higher the LRV, the cooler the temperature because more light is being reflected off the object. I had found many experiments comparing black and white and claiming the difference in their temperatures was due to white reflecting more light than black, so I thought I could expand that to colors in between the two as well. I was wrong and am trying to find out why. Can you help? Thanks, Alexandra Owens owenssf@worldnet.att.net _______________________________________________________________ Greetings - Your question was not submitted to the MAD Scientist Network for the following reason: A question similar to yours has been answered on our site. Please try our search engine to locate files: http://www.madsci.org/MS_search.html John Link, Admin MadSci Network ________________________________________________________________ MadSci Network http://www.madsci.org/ webadmin@www.madsci.org
Re: color vs heat absorption--effect of different colors on solar energy
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