2007-01-18 02:16:57 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Hi ,
The answer by "jrpmeheh" is true, they look different because of their formation..
Water becomes ice, when it freezes ,i.e liquid state to solid state.
Snow is formed by bonding of small small snow flakes, thus air is trapped between them,and hence no continuity of the same medium ,where as in ice, the medium is continous and allows light to pass through giving it a transparent appearence..(ice is not transparent completely)
Whereas in snow , due to the flake structure and non continous medium the light is not allowed to pass through and reflected or dispersed.Snow thus reflects all the light,means all the frequency of the light, and all the frequency put together is WHITE..so snow is white..(ie if you combine all the visible colors you will get white)
To simulate this , take a ice cube and crush it , you can see wherever there is a crack , it becomes whitish like a snow and is no more transparent..
2007-01-18 18:24:31 · answer #1 · answered by Nancy Maxilus 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Snow is made up of snow flakes, which are small and separate from each other. They are flat or two dimensional, and reflect light so they look white. Ice contains many water molecules that are bonded together in a three dimensional structure. This structure allows light to pass through the ice so that it looks clear. Look in a chemistry book to learn more about the structure of ice and snow flakes.
2007-01-18 02:58:52 · answer #2 · answered by jrpmeheh 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Snow is white in colour due to its appearance
Sunlight is reflected on the snow and it appears as white to the human eye
Ice is water in its frozen state. Water is always colourless and odourless. Hence ice appears as NOT White
2007-01-18 02:41:30 · answer #3 · answered by Santhosh S 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
SNOw is white because it reflect all the colors whereas ice cannot because ice cannot reflect 'it refracts the light
2007-01-18 02:28:51 · answer #4 · answered by GICU 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Color of any substance depend upon wavelenth and amount of rays reflected. As when we talk ice we talk about a single piece of a solid substance having refractive and reflactive coefficients. As light encounter it only once at surface. it reflect some of light refracting most of it. however snow has millions of such small pieces and light encounter reflection at surfaces of each of these flakes resulting most of light reflected and a small bit is refracted due to which we saw it white in color.
2007-01-18 19:21:46 · answer #5 · answered by Lovleena G 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
technically is isnt, the colour is all to do with reflected light. Snow is a good reflector, as is ice, it can depend on how thick it is,
2007-01-18 02:27:23 · answer #6 · answered by steven m 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋