> It's more that, in everyday life, there is no way of turning light into 
> either electricity

Solar panels.

> So that's the magic relationship? Those two measurements allow you to 
> determine the index of refraction?

Yes, but bear in mind those two properties will likely not be constant over 
frequency (maybe one of them will be, I don't know).

> Presumably knowing the *colour* of an object still requires you to compute 
> electron energy band gaps and weird crap like that though?

Probably, I don't know the details, I just know that for eg car paint there 
is *a lot* of this sort of research to get colour pigments that don't fade 
or change colour after 20 years in the sun.  You certainly need to know your 
chemistry and physics!

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