how are the pigments in clothes differ from plant pigments?
Pigments are pigments. They are made of molecules that absorb some colors and reflect others from the visible spectrum of light, which gives everything color. Black pigments absorb everything and reflect nothing, so black is the absence of color and it is why dark clothing are warmer in winter. White pigments reflect everything and absorb nothing, so clothing that is white is cooler in summer. Most plants have more chlorophyll, a green pigment, in them than other pigments, so the plant is overwhelmingly reflecting green back to our eyes and absorbing the red and blue ends of the spectrum. In fall, when the chlorophyll breaks down, we can see the yellow, orange, and red pigments that are also in the leaf for a few weeks. In this way, all pigments are alike. However, perhaps what your teacher is looking for is that the green pigment chlorophyll in plants not only absorbs red and blue wavelengths of light, it also uses that energy to excite electrons from the molecules of chlorophyll and send them through an electron transport chain that enables light energy to be converted to chemical energy and store it in the C-H bonds of glucose, which is made during photosynthesis. Other pigments, whether they be in clothes or other objects such as cars or just about anything else do not do this. Only plant chlorophyll, or the green pigment in plants, converts light energy to chemical energy. That is the one huge difference. Otherwise, like all other pigments, chlorophyll absorbs some wavelengths of light and reflects others, in the case of chlorophyll, green wavelengths of light.
