Inside the 23-Dimensional World of Your Car’s Paint Job | WIRED

Inside the 23-Dimensional World of Your Car’s Paint Job | WIRED: Photons can reflect off a surface, bouncing away at the angle as they arrived. They can also refract, heading off on a different trajectory. Both things happen when light hits an object. But a surface can also diffract light, bending its path—when light grazes past an object. If the pigment particles embedded in the surface are roughly the same size or slightly bigger than the inbound wavelength, different parts of the particle interact with different parts of the electric and magnetic field changes that make up the photon. The waves can interfere, both constructively and destructively, changing their scattering and eventual appearance.