Light reflecting material problem

[rad0786]

I had no idea where to post this - but i thouht the physics people might know this.

Question; Say you have a material - any matrial. If light Visible (white light) hits the material, and the matrial reflects all the light, will the matrial be BLACK?

What if the matrial absorbs all the light? will the matrial then be WHITE?

Or do i have this backwards

can somebody help me please

 

[dav2008]

Well think about it.

If light hits the material, and the material absorbs all of it then nothing is reflected.

If nothing is reflected, is there anything for you to see?

I guess it comes down to the fact that if no light hits your eye, you see black. If light hits your eye, you percieve a color based on the frequency (although I'm not sure if eyes respond to frequency or wavelength) of the light.

 

[rad0786]

I see, that makes a bit more sense.
Thank you dav2008, I appreciate that.