[Spacemonkey]

Originally Posted by peacegirl

This is a very appropriate definition:

(Physics / General Physics) Physics a reduction of the intensity of any form of radiated energy as a result of energy conversion in a medium, such as the conversion of sound energy into heat.

absorption - definition of absorption by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

To be fair, this is one way objects could absorb part of the sunlight without preventing the (N)reflected sunlight from still representing the full spectrum. Objects could absorb equal proportions of each wavelength present, meaning the reflected sunlight will be reduced in intensity but will still consist of the same balance of all wavelengths.

The problem is that absorption of this sort will necessarily be completely irrelevant to vision, and cannot possibly explain perceived color. That perceived color of any object must correspond to some point on the spectrum of visible light, and if every object just absorbs more or less of the same set of wavelengths, then with respect to that spectrum they all have exactly the same absorptive properties. Meaning that something other than 'absorption' (as here defined) will be required to explain why we see different objects in different colors.