Eli5 Why are diamonds clear when they are made of carbon?

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Diamonds are clear and see-through yet they are made of highly pressurized carbon which if you see in its unpressurized state looks like black powder or a handful of ash, What happens to cause it to become see-through like that. For that matter the same question for sand and silica into glass.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Things have color since photons interact with electrons over various ranges. If electrons cannot interact with photons, they turn transparent.

Diamond and other transparent materials have electrons that are so tightly packed they have no place to go when they would interact with photons, so they can’t interact.

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