Why Do Wet Clothes Look Darker?為什么濕衣服看起來(lái)顏色更深？

陳傳光

當(dāng)衣服被汗水打濕或被雨水淋濕，抑或把衣服浸泡到水里，我們會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)濕了的衣服顏色明顯變深了。你有沒(méi)有想過(guò)為什么呢？閱讀下文，去尋找答案吧！

Have you ever 1）spilled water onto your shirt right before animportant event？ Usually， clothes darken in color when they get wet. Itwould certainly be nice if the water didn’t change the color of the clothesso much. But sadly， this isn’t how things work. So why do clothes oftenappear darker when they get wet？

Before answering this question， we should first take a quick look athow we “see” colors. Take a red shirt as an example. When it’s hit by thelight from the sun， it absorbs different 2）wavelengths of light， except thered light wavelength. The red light wavelength is reflected to our eyes.That is why the shirt appears red to us.

Now let’s return to the wet shirt question. When the light hits a wet?shirt， it has to pass through the water on the shirt. The light that shouldbe reflected by the shirt is 3）reabsorbed by the water. This means lesslight will be sent to our eyes. As a result， the shirt looks darker.

But remember， sometimes a wet shirt can seem brighter from somespecific angles of observation. The surface of a shirt is usually 4）rough.Adding water to it makes it smoother. A smooth surface reflects light in adifferent way from a rough surface. Thus， you may see a small and brightreflection of the light from a certain angle. So basically， a wet shirt will bedarker than a dry one， but it can also appear more “shiny” at times.

1） spill v. 溢出；灑出

2） wavelength n. 波長(zhǎng)

3） reabsorb v. 重新吸收

4） rough adj. 粗糙的；不平滑的

你有沒(méi)有在重要活動(dòng)前把水灑到襯衫上的經(jīng)歷？通常，衣服被打濕后顏色會(huì)加深。如果水不會(huì)改變衣服的顏色，那當(dāng)然很好。但遺憾的是，事情并非如此。那么，為什么衣服弄濕后往往顏色會(huì)顯得更深呢？

在回答這個(gè)問(wèn)題之前，我們應(yīng)該先快速了解一下我們是如何“看到”顏色的。以一件紅色襯衫為例。當(dāng)它被陽(yáng)光照射時(shí)，它會(huì)吸收不同波長(zhǎng)的光，紅色波長(zhǎng)的光除外。紅光波長(zhǎng)反射到我們的眼睛，這就是為什么我們覺(jué)得這件襯衫是紅色的。

現(xiàn)在讓我們回到濕襯衫問(wèn)題。當(dāng)光線照射到濕襯衫時(shí)，它必須透過(guò)襯衫上的水。襯衫反射的光線被水重新吸收，這意味著反射到我們的眼睛的光就會(huì)變少。因此，濕襯衫的顏色看起來(lái)更深。

但請(qǐng)記住，有時(shí)從某些特定的觀察角度來(lái)看，濕襯衫會(huì)顯得更亮。襯衫的表面通常是粗糙的，加水會(huì)使它更光滑。光滑表面反射光線的方式與粗糙表面不同。因此，你可以從某個(gè)角度看到光線小而明亮的反射。所以基本上，濕襯衫會(huì)比干襯衫看起來(lái)顏色更深，但有時(shí)也會(huì)顯得更“閃亮”。