Will a black material coated in white absorb less heat than a white material coated in black? Lets say I have two strips of leather, or other material, one black and one white. If I paint over the surface of the black leather (material) in white and the white leather (material) in black which will be cooler in the sun?
 A: The black leather painted in white should be cooler when exposed to sunlight.
Here's why: the layer of white paint reflects a large part of the sunlight and transmits and absorbs a small amount.
$$I_{incident} = I_{absorbed} + I_{transmitted} + I_{reflected}$$
For the white paint layer, $I_{absorbed}$ and $I_{transmitted}$ are small, while $I_{reflected}$ is a large value. The intensity is proportional to the power that is dissipated inside the material. Therefore, the white paint layer heats up only a bit ($I_{absorbed}$ is small).
The black leather underneath is heated by $I_{transmitted}$. Since it is a black surface, we can assume all of the incoming light is absorbed and heats the leather. So in total, both the paint and the leather are heated by a small fraction of the incoming intensity and therefore stay relatively cool.
On the other hand, the black paint layer on the white leather will absorb most of the incoming intensity and therefore heat up a great deal. The heated layer transmits its heat to the leather, because they are in close thermal contact (touching).
A: A black object absorbs all wavelengths of light and converts them into heat, so the object gets warm. A white object reflects all wavelengths of light, so the light is not converted into heat and the temperature of the object does not increase noticeably.
A: The only thing that matters is the color of the surface, not of the material inside, or the previous surface color.
