How can any color reflect the color of light shone upon it? I tested this by shining different colors of light on different objects, and instead of becoming black, it reflected a hazier form of that color. This was true even for black surfaces. For example, when i shine a green light on a black surface, if the surrounding light, for example, the light outside or in the room other than the light being shone is dark enough, the black surface becomes a little green.
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$\begingroup$ Welcome to Physics Stack Exchange. Please note that adding pleasantries to your answers, such as "thank you" is not necessary. Always try to make your questions as clear and concise as possible; avoid any extra words or sentences which do not contribute to the question. $\endgroup$– DanielSankCommented Dec 29, 2014 at 2:53
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What light is reflected from an object is a natural property of that object. When we say "this is green", we generally mean "this object looks green in white light". That means it reflects predominately green light - if we shone green light on it, it would not look very different than if we shone white light on it.
However, all objects reflect all light - but if there is much more of one color, it will look primarily that color. For instance, if I have an object which reflects green (80%) and blue (20%), in white light it will look green (perhaps blue-green, depending on the parameters of the object and your eye). However, if I shine blue light on it, it will look blue because there are no other colors which can be reflected! Just because we see a single color doesn't mean the object reflects only that color.
answered Dec 29, 2014 at 2:50
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$\begingroup$ How can black be simultaneously reflecting all colors and absorbing most colors in order to reflect green? Does that mean that it was truly a dark grey? It looks very black. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 29, 2014 at 8:47
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1$\begingroup$ There are many possible reasons, but basically, real surfaces are complicated. For instance, I'm looking at a black cooking pot right now - it's mostly very black, but some places are silvery-white, because if the light strikes them just right, they reflect differently. Or perhaps your surface is not perfectly absorptive, so you shine green light on it and only 10% get reflected back - but that is enough to give it a little green color. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 30, 2014 at 2:44