True power of colour

Of course a black car is hotter than a white one. Want to know by how much?

We have always wondered if the colour of a car plays any role to the temperature inside when left in an exposed parking lot or in an open space for a couple of hours. From our lessons in elementary physics we know that darker colours absorb more heat, but a test was due with the advent of summer.

Theory suggests that white would be the coolest and black would be the hottest colour since the former reflects all light while the latter absorbs it all. But theory doesn’t always match up to reality so we at AutoToday were debating whether a car’s colour made any difference. We conducted this test a while back on a now outdated sedan in its entire colour range available at that time. The test was conducted during peak summer time in the National Capital with temperature soaring till 55 degree centigrade. What we found out was very educative.