eli5: Why is water clear in small quantities but blue when in large quantities?
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Water is blue in all quantities, just very pale blue. So in small quantities it *looks* clear, but it’s still very pale blue. Just too pale to notice unless you have a much thicker path of water to look through like a swimming pool or lake.
This is very similar to how glass is actually green. It looks clear when you look through a thin sheet, but if you look [edge-on down a sheet](https://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00BAOQenwPPHpd/1-8mm-3-2mm-4-8mm-Sheet-Glass-Float-Glass-for-Furniture-and-Building.jpg) or have [mirrors facing each other](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/zn3sju/looked_for_a_mirror_sub_but_apparently_theyre_all/), you can see that it’s actually green once the light has gone through enough glass for the faint tint to be noticeable to your eyes.
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