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I need answers now plez!!!

2007-11-05 10:50:10 · 2 answers · asked by ckapololu 1 in Science & Mathematics Earth Sciences & Geology

2 answers

Simple as I can make it:
What you see as white is light scattered by
small bubbles in the clear ice.
Just as snow looks white, or salt, or sugar
for the same reason.
If you let some sugar water or salt water
dry you get clear crystals, but the powdered
stuff looks white because the small crystals
scatter light.

2007-11-05 10:56:58 · answer #1 · answered by Irv S 7 · 0 0

This is due to defects when the crystal is growing. If the crystal had no defects, it would in fact appear clear.
The defects in the crystal scatter the light hitting it, which is then scattered further by more defects within the crystal until it reaches your eye. If the light reflected off a single defect it may be of a particular colour (say, for example, green) but in reality there are so many defects that the light reflects many times before reaching your eyes, scattering light in all the wavelengths of visible light.
The colour that you see therefore is white, since this is what colour you see when all wavelengths of visible light are present in equal amounts, the 'average' colour.

Look closely at an ice crystal and you may be able to see some of the individual colours twinkling.

The same effect can be seen on bubbles in a bath. Close up they twinkle in many colours, but from more of a distance they look white.

2007-11-05 11:26:41 · answer #2 · answered by Lil 5 · 0 0

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