why is snow white?

Answer 1

One of the reasons that so many people love snow is that it coats everything in a clean, "pure" white blanket. We even talk about snow in these terms -- weatherman say that we'll be getting "some of the white stuff" and every December you're likely to hear the song "White Christmas" over and over again. Snow wouldn't be snow if it wasn't white. But if you think about it, it seems weird that snow is white at all, since it's just a bunch of ice crystals stuck together. So where does it get its distinctive color?
To understand where the whiteness comes from, we need to back up and look at why different things have different colors in the first place. Visible light is made up of many different frequencies of light. Our eyes detect different frequencies as different colors. Different objects have different colors because the particular particles (atoms and molecules) that make up the object have different vibration frequencies. Basically, the electrons of the particle will vibrate a certain amount in response to energy, depending on the frequency of the energy. In the case of light energy, the molecules and atoms absorb a certain amount of light energy depending on the frequency of the light, and then emit this absorbed energy as heat. This means that objects absorb certain frequencies of light more than others.

A couple of different things can happen to the light frequencies that are not absorbed. In some material, when a particle re-emits the photons, they continue to pass through to the next particle. In this case, light travels all the way through the material, so the material is clear. In most solid material, the particles re-emit most of the unabsorbed photons out of the material, so no light, or very little light, passes through and the object is opaque. The color of an opaque object is just the combination of the light energy that the object's particles did not absorb.

So, since snow is frozen water, and we all know that frozen water is clear, why does snow have a distinctive color? To understand this, we need to back up and look at an individual piece of ice. Ice is not transparent; it's actually translucent. This means that the light photons don't pass right through the material in a direct path -- the material's particles change the light's direction. This happens because the distances between some atoms in the ice's molecular structure are close to the height of light wavelengths, which means the light photons will interact with the structures. The result is that the light photon's path is altered and it exits the ice in a different direction than it entered the ice.

Snow is a whole bunch of individual ice crystals arranged together. When a light photon enters a layer of snow, it goes through an ice crystal on the top, which changes its direction slightly and sends it on to a new ice crystal, which does the same thing. Basically, all the crystals bounce the light all around so that it comes right back out of the snow pile. It does the same thing to all the different light frequencies, so all colors of light are bounced back out. The "color" of all the frequencies in the visible spectrum combined in equal measure is white, so this is the color we see in snow, while it is not the color we see in the individual ice crystals that form snow.

Answer 2

even something clear will refelct light if it is incident on it from a certain angle, you know like looking at a puddle and seeing the sky.
Also light will move in a different direction when looking through a different medium, like looking through a prism.

Well snow is made up of lots of little bits and they all reflect light at certain angles and they all bend light they don't reflect.

the light that isn't reflected will reach the next crystal and possibly be reflected, if not it'll be redirected by this one and reach another crystal. the reflected light also can reach other crystals and the whole process goes on an on until light is reflected every which way.

the constructive nature of the light is such that since all the colours are emmitted in all direction the net effect is white light.

to think of a similar effect take a pain of glass thats nice and clear. then smash it into lots of little bits and put all those bit in a pile. the pile will not be see through.

Answer 3

Something to do with light refraction. It creates the glimmers off tiny flat surfaces that give it the appearance of being white.

But heed the advice of Frank Zappa

'Don't eat the yellow snow
Because that is where the huskies go'

Answer 4

Snow is white, because it is made up of ice crystals and all the light is reflected from it making it appear white.

Answer 5

It's not really white, it's clear. It looks white because it reflects the entire light spectrum (aside from any impurities in the snow). I.E. Don't eat the yellow snow. :)

Answer 6

Why is Snow White what??? So damn horny? Cause if you lived with 7 little ugly men all day you would be sex starved too!

Answer 7

it reflects beams of white light. Instead of absorbing light, snow's complex structure prevents the light from shining through its lattice formation.

Answer 8

Becuz the flight of the blight of snow white. why does the queen have to be dark? I know whites to think they're right but quite contraire.

Answer 9

Cause she's pure. If she was snow red, she'd be one foxy lady!!!!!!!!!

Answer 10

Cos I haven't peed on it yet!