What determines whether a material reflects, absorbs or transmits a certain wavelength of light? Just a layman's question.
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2$\begingroup$ The following may be useful hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/mod3.html $\endgroup$– Bob DCommented Jun 30, 2023 at 14:07
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this is a complicated business, but here is a simplified answer.
The outermost portion of all atoms and molecules that make up everyday matter is the electron cloud. When photons of light hit a piece of matter, it is with the electron cloud that they interact.
The nature of that interaction (reflection, absorption, or nothing at all) depends on the energy level that the outermost electrons in the cloud are occupying, whether or not those electrons are free to move from one atom to the next, and how many of them there are.
It also depends on the amount of energy that the photons of incident light are carrying (which also determines their color). The strongest interactions between light and matter occur when there's a close match between the energy level of the photon and the electron it interacts with.
This means that some colors of light will not interact much with the electrons in a particular atom or molecule while others of a different color will interact strongly.
For an interaction in which the electron absorbs the photon, that particular color gets subtracted from the light beam and what then reflects off the matter has a different color makeup than the incoming white beam did. Your eye then perceives the resulting color.
answered Jun 30, 2023 at 16:26