Why at night, under the mercury or sodium vapor lights in a mall parking lot, do cars seem to be peculiar colors?3

Because these lights work with a combination of gases that emits a yellow-orange light that reacts with the paint of cars.

Explanation:

The mercury or sodium vapor lights work with a very interesting gas structure that when reacting with each other, emit yellow-orange lights that react with the color of the cars making them appear to have other colors.

When these lights are placed in parking lots, the white cars will turn orange. This is because the white paint used in cars contains particles that emit a yellow-orange spectrum. However, cars of other colors do not have these particles and therefore become black under these lights.

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