How Come Ice is white when it freezes? And....?

Question

My grandma says if the ice is clear it's good pure water, but she says if it's white or white-ish then the water isn't as good.

My personal belief is that it depends on how fast the ice freezes. But im not 100% positive. Help Meeeeeeeeeee....

Answer 1

Air bubbles, minerals and crystal formation are what cause ice and snow to be white (reflect white light). Check out this bit on howstuffworks to make clear ice cubes for yourself.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question205.htm

Answer 2

Ice is colorless in that it does not absorb any visible light; however, thick slabs of ice like liquid water can scatter light giving it a bluish cast. Not white, blue.
Large blocks of ice absorb light from the visible spectrum, preferentially absorbing from the red end of the spectrum so thicker volumes of ice will let blue light through. Thus the ice will have the color blue. Also, the purer the water that is used in making the ice, the more pronounced the blue color will be.
Man made ice will not be as blue in color..it will be more colorless.
Any clear substance can be cloudy, milky, or white, if it has colorless interruptions in it.

Answer 3

Like some of the others said, the whiteness comes from tiny air bubbles in the water as it freezes. If you want crystal clear cubes, boil the water first, then freeze. Boiling removes the extra bubbles or something.

Answer 4

What makes the ice white is partly what is in the water, but most of it is that the water has little tiny air bubbles in it, and those are what make the ice white more than anything else.

Answer 5

The ice is clear when it is in the freezer but when you take it out the humidity in the air freezes on the cube and causes cloudyness. When you drop the ice cube in a glass of water the cloudyness is gone and the ice will be clear again.

Try it

Answer 6

It's all about time. Believe it or not, hotter water freezes faster than colder water because the molecules are further apart.

Boil water and freeze it and you will have crystal clear ice cubes.

Answer 7

Ice is white because of the sediment in the water (minerals etc.)

If you notice...white ice has a taste to it while clear ice doesn't because of the minerals in the white ice.

Answer 8

I think it depends on the quantity and the distance. For example, ice blocks look white from far away and when there's a lot of it when when you are up close, it looks clearer.
Also, I think the same logic applies to clouds (Iknow it's gas). When you're in the air, they seem transparent but when you're farther away, them seem white.

Answer 9

If you fill your ice trays with hot water instead of cold, then the ice freezes clear.

Answer 10

the white color is the air trapped inside. there might be some chemical reaction to other trace elements in it. yes, how fast the water freezes is correct but mostly it's air bubbles.