paulb@hcrvax.UUCP (Paul Bonneau) (11/15/84)
[Out vile jelly!] Wow, this discussion is truly amazing! Let's see if we can clear up a few things here. 1) Black body theory says that black objects absorb AND radiate heat better than more reflective ones. 2) A pot is going to get hot mainly through conductance of heat. A silver pot will radiate less of that heat than a black one will. 3) A totally black object will stand out like a wad of peppercorns in your vanilla ice cream. The contrast between reflective surrounding and something that reflects no light will be considerable (unless you kook in deep space :~). 4) The black element on a stove glows red when it's hot, it doesn't glow black. The wavelength of the radiation emitted by an object is a function of its temperature, not of the object's colour. I still can't believe the ignorance prevailing in [net] journalism today! For someone to draw the conclusion that an object of colour x can only radiate light of colour x is incredulous! This person should have at least have consulted a basic physics test. -- I'm a man! I'm not a horse! Paul Bonneau {decvax|utzoo|watmath}!hcr!hcrvax