Reflectance

Alright buddy, so let me explain reflectance to you like you're five.

You know how when you look in the mirror, you can see yourself? Well, everything in the world can reflect light too, even if it's not a mirror. The amount of light that bounces off an object is called reflectance.

Think about a ball. When light shines on the ball, some of it bounces off and comes back to your eyes. This is why you can see the ball! The ball's surface determines how much of that light reflects back. If the ball was really shiny, like a mirror, almost all the light would reflect back. If the ball was really dull, like a rock, very little would reflect back.

Scientists use reflectance to study and understand different materials. They can measure how much light bounces off of something and figure out what it's made of, how it behaves under different conditions, and even how it might look in different lighting.

So, reflectance is a big word that basically means how much light bounces off of something. And now you know!