Why is a white dress more comfortable than a dark dress in summer?

The comfort of wearing a white dress over a dark colored dress on a summer day is due to the difference in absorption of the sun’s light by different colors.


The light is an electromagnetic wave, that contains mass and energy. Based on the absorption of certain wavelengths of light energy source like Sun, objects will exhibit its color. A darker object is the one which absorbs all the colors (the wavelengths in the visible spectrum) of the light and a white object will reflect all the colors of the light.


Hence, a dark-colored dress will absorb all the visible wavelengths from the sun and this energy will get converted into heat energy. While in the case of a white dress, all the visible wavelengths are reflected from the dress causing effectively no absorption (in the ideal cases).


So, in the summer, as the radiation from the sun is higher, wearing a white dress will help to not absorb the energy but to reflect it, while a darker dress will absorb most of the radiation. Hence it would be more comfortable in a white dress on a summer day.


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