Water has no colour but when we freeze coulourless water it appears to be white in colour. Why?

Answer 1

nope - not oxygen or air bubbles. although bubbles that form may cause some apparent color. The white color is caused by impurities in the water. As water freezes in a container, it will freeze from the outside inward. As the outside freezes the water want to freeze as pure water. This traps the impurities in the ice and pushes them inward. the last part of the ice to freeze is the middle, this is were the most impurities end up, because there is no place else for them to go. If you ever look at ice that has frozen in this manner, you when notice that the white impurities are normally always in the middle. If they are not, then the chilling of the container was not even. Ultra pure water will not turn white. This is what they use for ice sculptures.

Answer 2

When water freezes, it mostly doesn't do it perfectly. Cracks and bubbles apear in rapidly frozen ice, and the differences in the ice's pressure bend the spectrum of light, and the colors are combined to apear white. Has anybody ever seen very thin ice about 1/4 inch thick? That ice is frozen naturally and slowly on a lake, therefore, there are no craks or bubbles. It is very clear. Oh yeah, like somebody said, the water expands, it doesn't contract.

Answer 3

There is a lot of misinformation mixed with truth in the answers so far. When water freezes, it does tend to have some air in it which makes it appear white since the frozen air/water mixture reflects all wavelengths of light. To get clear ice, one must carefully vibrate the water as it cools to remove any dissolved air before freezing.

Answer 4

the genuine answer to this question is that that organic water is colorless the two whilst it quite is liquid and is sweet. the explanation why all of the ice cubes you spot are white is which you haven't any longer have been given organic water. drinks have the skill to dissolve a undeniable quantity of gas, so the water you drink oftentimes has various inert gasses dissolved in it. even with the incontrovertible fact that, as temperature decreases, the skill of a liquid to dissolve gasses decreases and the gasses come out of answer. Now once you're making ice cubes, the precise of the water oftentimes freezes first, so all of the gas that comes out of answer is trapped in the cubes, and is seen by way of fact the white colour you're used to seeing. in case you want sparkling ice cubes, attempt boiling your water first to get rid of the final public of impurities, and then freeze it. it would come out sparkling.

Answer 5

Boy lots of half truths above.

Pure water, when frozen, will be crystal clear,

HOWEVER
pure water is hard to come by. gasses (not just O2) drop out of solution when frozen and make tiny pockets in the ice. Also minerals like calcium and magnesium carbonate can drop of solution and the cystals of both are white.

Answer 6

The oxygen bubbles get trapped while it is freezing, and ice with oxygen bubbles inside tends to make tiny cracks, which refract light and appear white.

Answer 7

water does to have a color or else u would never see it. if u look at a water bottle u could say yup theres water in there. its not invisable. having said that when anything freezes it contracts. so now u have everything in a very tight ball. and u could see it lookin white

Answer 8

The oxygen bubbles get trapped inside the water as it is freezing.

Answer 9

good answers people very true. but the reason that it appears as white si that the color white contains all the other colors of the spectrum. when light goes through the air bubles in the ice it creates a reverse prisim effect and filters all of the colored light into white by changing the wavelength of the color reflected. that is why it appears white.

Answer 10

I'd like to point out to the genius who said everything contracts when it freezes.....water expands. Fill a water bottle to the brim and freeze it, then tell me what happens.