Why does urine look colourless when being released, but appears yellow when you pee into something and look into it?
In: Biology
Color comes from the light that makes it to your eyes. The stream of urine is really thin and uneven so the little yellow color there isn’t as noticeable. Once it is in a container you are looking at a thicker collection with less light refecting texture than was in the stream. The yellow coloring adds up and you see it more.
Because of the depth of material you’re looking through.
When urine comes out as a thin stream, that yellow color is still there, but faint. It’s also picking up air as it falls which adds to the loss of color. But once it hits the cup or toilet bowl, instead of looking at a 3/16″ steam of liquid, you’re looking at a few inches of liquid.
Same concept as water in a lake or sea. You can scoop up a glass of water and it looks perfectly clear, but when you look at the body of water, it looks blue, brown, or green (depending on how much algae, dirt, or pollution is in it).
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