Eli5 Why is water see through?

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My 4 year old asked me and I think it’s a rather good question that I would like to answer so she understands. Thanks 🙏🏻

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Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s important to realize that lots of things are see through, water, glass, air…

The other important idea to understand is that light travels in a straight line unless it hits something; but here’s the rub, it’s picky about what it hits. Different kinds of light like to hit different things. For example, x rays like to hit bones but not your skin and muscles. Radio waves like to hit sky scrapers, but not people. Blue light likes to hit the air, but red light doesn’t (which is why sunsets are red and the sky is blue).

Things that are see through, like water, glass and air, aren’t made of stuff that likes to get hit by “normal” light, so the light just goes right through it.

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