What is the "real" actual color of water? Is it clear? And why does water sometimes appear blue? I mean,

Question

I want to know the real scientific reason why water appears blue...

Answer 1

According to this research, it is intrinsically blue. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~etrnsfer/water.htm

Pretty interesting stuff:
"To our knowledge the intrinsic blueness of water is the only example from nature in which color originates from vibrational transitions"

Answer 2

Water, by nature, is clear. The reason water can sometimes appear blue is because of the density of the water. Water that is more dense, ie salt content, will absorb all light wavelenghts except for blue. The blue end of the spectrum is reflected back to our eyes. You can also see this phenomenon in glaciers. The ice is so dense that only the blue wavelengths of the spectrum are reflectecd back to the eye.

Answer 3

Water itself has no colour (assuming no other material in the water that will colour it).
But it can appear blue when it absorbs some of the blue light that comes from the blue sky (the sky is blue because that colour of sunlight is "scattered" by the atmosphere).
It can appear blue by reflecting the blue sky (when the surface is relatively calm it can act like a lot of tiny mirrors).
You'll notice that on a cloudy day oceans and lakes are more grey (or green if there is a lot of plant life in the water).

Answer 4

Pure water is colorless. Large bodies of water appear blue due partly to a phenomenon in physics called Rayleigh scattering (which also explains why the sky is blue), but the full explanation involves an additional effect called Raman scattering. I believe the full explanation is even more complex and requires relativity to understand.

Answer 5

The pure water is colorless.However when it is impure,with various dissolved salts, it assumes colors.The blue color you generally see in the surface of sea, river,lake etc waterbodies is the color reflected from the sky.

Answer 6

You could just search previously answered questions, you know.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuZGpBs8lv9BwcE.IocJzV0jzKIX?qid=20070717175922AA74kzv

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmcBWgxhOnTJUvhqBxkOvyAjzKIX?qid=1005122502710

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgQT38kQhKxraM7vZ14cArIjzKIX?qid=20061230194319AAmTfAs

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ao6yK2f1.Bu8hpKPMPsYmsUjzKIX?qid=20070611002803AAz3YZd

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ArNX6VIHzaFiN85sExNzJSIjzKIX?qid=1005122101772

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ar.nfd5rzNNE5RXsBK72_Ezty6IX?qid=20070624042148AAIeQes&show=7#profile-info-tIY2wzYMaa

And then of course, there's the simple internet search:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~etrnsfer/water.htm
http://webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/5.html
http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/vibrat.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhD1rZ2Y7D4
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2000-06/961769917.Ph.r.html
http://www.aip.org/png/images/deth20.jpg (picture mentioned in previous link)
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen99/gen99646.htm

Short answer, it looks blue because it IS blue.

The problem arises because a small amount of it appears clear.