Why does the moon making everything black and white?

Question

Why does the moon make you see everything in black and white, but the sun's light makes everything in color. Since the moon reflects the sun's light, shouldn't it show color the same way?

Answer 1

It's not the Moon, it's your eyes.

I don't mean your eyes specifically, I mean all human eyes.



Human eyes have two different kinds of "sensors". As someone already mentioned, these are called rods and cones. Rods are only sensitive to the level of light and not the specific color. If you only had rods you would see everything in black and white and shades of gray. Cones are the sensors for color. It turns out that humans have a lot more rods than cones, which means (among other things) that it takes a lot more light to get the cones to work so we can perceive color. So, when there's a lot less light than normal, we see "black and white" much better than color.



Now take the case of the Moon. The Moon is a bit more than 1/4 the diameter of the earth, actually 27.3%. That means the Moon only gets about 7.5% as much light as the Earth (0.273^2=0.0745, please forgive my simplification here). Also, the moon is nearly black in color (really) and only reflects about 7% of the light hitting it.



In short, the moonlight is a whole lot less bright than sunshine, and that's just not enough to stimulate the cones very much.

Answer 2

It doesn't actually make anything black and white, all colors can still be seen as they are. It seems this way because since moon is reflecting the sunlight onto the earth, it is not direct light. Since it's only a reflection, it's not as strong as direct light. Therefore, all the colors seem less vivid. You can do an experiment to prove this: take a flashlight and go in a room with little or no light. Shine the flashlight on a piece of fabric or something that is brightly colored. This would be like daylight. Now if you take a shiny book or something that could reflect the flashlight's light ( not a mirror, because this is practically direct light), shine the flashlight onto the shiny surface, and cast the reflection onto that same piece of fabric, you'll notice that the color seems more dull than it was before. Sorry this was long, but I hope that answered your question! :)

Answer 3

It has nothing to do with the Moon. The Moon reflects light from the Sun, and it reflects all colors (which is why it appears white).



Instead, it is related to how your eye works. You have two types of cells in your retina: rod cells and cone cells. The rods detect brightness of light, while the three types of cone cells (corresponding to red, blue, and green) detect color.



However, in dim light (such as you get outdoors at night time), the cone cells are not effective, so you see very little color.

Answer 4

The moon reflects light, but at a very diminished quantity. Let's not forget that the moon is not exactly a gigantic mirror floating in space, it's a lot of gray and brown rock reflecting a minute fraction of the light it receives. The sun, however, it a gigantic light bulb on steroids.

Answer 5

It's not the moon its your eyes they are not make for that lack of light. Anyways the sunlight being reflected by the moon has nothing to do with it. Look a lightbulbs they make every in color and its not sunlight

Answer 6

Our eyes can only detect colour in bright light. When the light is dim (and moonlight is thousands of times dimmer than sunlight) the colour receptors stop functioning, and we see everything in shades of grey. This is the same reason why most of what we look at through a telescope appears in shades of grey: the colours in pretty pictures of the skies only appear because cameras are more sensitive to colour in dim light than the human eye is.

Answer 7

I never see anything in black and white in the moonlight, but you have to remember, it is darker, the moon doesn't send as much light as the sun so therefore things won't look the same as there isn't as much light making it seem to be black and white.

Answer 8

lol thats not how it works. In low light situations the cones in your eyes go offline(they let you see color) and your vision is provided by the rods, which only pick up greyscale, its the low light provided by the moon, you need to do a bit of research, light doesn't pick a color before it strikes an object. certain things reflect only certain hues of light.

Answer 9

Logically, the moon is a mirror image of what goes around it. Sun gone away and it is dark so it shows darkness, and what makes it white, is the stars shining. Okay, just guessing.

Answer 10

I can see colour when the moon is out? D: Even when the lights are out and things. Have you got your eyes tested or something?

Answer 11

it doesnt make it black and white

the lack of light provided by the moo makes the colors very dull

and they may appear more gray scale than during the day

Answer 12

"Cold hearted orb that rules the night,

Removes the colours from our sight.

Red is grey and yellow white.

But we decide which is right.

And which is an illusion?"



i would guess that it doesn't reflect the entire spectrum very strongly.

Answer 13

b.c thats the color of moon its like white sand its not sand but thats the color and the black u see its holes that they have shadow on them but the sun is fire y is fire bright???

Answer 14

MOON DUST IS GREY