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In my limited experience in Arabia, the women wear black, optimized for losing heat inside, and men wear white, optimized for reflecting direct light outside -
by mikhailfranco 1y ago
In my limited experience in Arabia, the women wear black, optimized for losing heat inside, and men wear white, optimized for reflecting direct light outside - at least that was my instinctive explanation.
- schiffern 1y ago>black, optimized for losing heat inside Black colored clothing does not lose heat faster inside. You're probably thinking this because of "black body radiation"[0], but room-temperature objects glow in the far IR, not in visible light. So what actually matters for radiant heat loss is to be 'black' in the far IR part of the spectrum, which is true for most non-metals. Additionally, I doubt that radiative heat loss is a major cooling mode in clothing, vs convection and evaporation. I expect wearing black was more about protection from UV skin damage. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body_radiation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body_radiation