So why is snow the color white and not clear? Is it because of the way it freezes?
In: 26
It’s because even though it’s transparent, there are a lot of surfaces and relfections inside it that eventually completely scatter the light.
**Think of saran wrap / cling film. It’s transparent, but if you scrunch a bunch up into a ball, it becomes white looking** for exactly the same reason as snow. The light passing through hundreds of layers, all at different angles to each other, gets scattered / internally reflected.
It’s because even though it’s transparent, there are a lot of surfaces and relfections inside it that eventually completely scatter the light.
**Think of saran wrap / cling film. It’s transparent, but if you scrunch a bunch up into a ball, it becomes white looking** for exactly the same reason as snow. The light passing through hundreds of layers, all at different angles to each other, gets scattered / internally reflected.
Edges in sunlight are white and all the snowflakes in a pile of snow have edges.
You see the colors “white,” “gray,” and “silver” when light of every color reaches your eyes from an object without a preference for any one color over others. Silver colored objects preserve some of the internal structure of the light that bounces off them, so you can see things reflected in them, whereas gray and white objects destroy the internal structure of the light so you only see bright and dark. White differs from gray by being brighter — a white thing in shade can look gray, and a gray thing in bright light can look white.
When light enters a clear solid object like a lens or a snowflake or a window, it bends a bit. The same happens with clear liquids. In a big pile of snow, all the snowflake edges bend sunlight randomly, destroying all the internal structure of the light and then sending it off in every direction.
Clouds and table sugar are also white because they have a lot of edges in them.
Edges in sunlight are white and all the snowflakes in a pile of snow have edges.
You see the colors “white,” “gray,” and “silver” when light of every color reaches your eyes from an object without a preference for any one color over others. Silver colored objects preserve some of the internal structure of the light that bounces off them, so you can see things reflected in them, whereas gray and white objects destroy the internal structure of the light so you only see bright and dark. White differs from gray by being brighter — a white thing in shade can look gray, and a gray thing in bright light can look white.
When light enters a clear solid object like a lens or a snowflake or a window, it bends a bit. The same happens with clear liquids. In a big pile of snow, all the snowflake edges bend sunlight randomly, destroying all the internal structure of the light and then sending it off in every direction.
Clouds and table sugar are also white because they have a lot of edges in them.
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I fucking love this subreddit, just learned something new that I wouldn’t even have thought to ask
I fucking love this subreddit, just learned something new that I wouldn’t even have thought to ask
When are the 7 dwarves?
When are the 7 dwarves?
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