Why is ice blue? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Is this answer correct? :shrug: “Snow is white because full spectrum, or white, light is scattered and reflected at the boundary between ice and air. The white color of bubbles at the top of a dark beer work the same way—small pockets of air reflect and scatter visible light. Ice only appears blue when it is sufficiently consolidated that bubbles do not interfere with the passage of light. Without the scattering effect of air bubbles, light can penetrate ice undisturbed. In ice, the absorption of light at the red end of the spectrum is six times greater than at the blue end. Thus, the deeper light energy travels the more photons from the red end of the spectrum it loses along the way. Two meters into the glacier, most of the reds are dead. A lack of reflected red wavelengths produces the color blue in the human eye.” http://www.carleton.edu/departments/geol/links/alumcontributions/blueice/blue.html
I think the picture used has a blue bias. On an overcast day, it can look grayish and whitish. Indoors, in my glass of "water" it looks clearish to whitish. By the time I finish the bottle of "water", the ice may look blue, now that you mention it.
It seems like you answered your own question. But let me add for the same reason water is blue. Our world isn't called the little blue dot for nothing.
That is what I thought, but water is blue because of the absorption of red light due to an overtone of the infrared OH stretching. I don’t think that it’s caused from scattering due to air bubbles, but the answer came from Carleton College. :shrug:
Damn! I missed your 40 thousand post. But your new avatar looks provocative.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Yeah! It has something to do with the Hydrogen Oxygen bond absorbing the reds and yellows in the spectrum. The thicker and denser the ice the better, because there are more chances for the reds to get absorbed out.
Right, but most of the answers out there state that it’s caused from scattering, and the real reason for the absorption is due to the vibrations of the OH bond in the water molecules, which normally vibrate at the infrared wavelength. However, the OH stretching causes overtones to vibrate in the visible red, at a higher frequency than infrared. You're a great Googler, KJK. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
And here I thought it was because penguins, polar bears and seals pee blue pee! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! The purity of the water, among other factors, will also contribute to the 'color' of ice. Water is an interesting compound element, having the property of expansion as it gets colder, where most other elements contract.
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Select #6, Launchpad:Thin Ice, Looking at Birefringence http://www.sci-ed-ga.org/modules/materialscience/colorofice.pdf http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/5C.html
The problem with the quote in the OP is that it says compacted, air-free ice looks blue because it is faintly blue, but doesn't say why ice is faintly blue. And pure ice and water are faintly blue because there are molecular vibrations possible which cause it to slightly absorb radiation is a broad region of reds and yellows. It's unusual for a substance to have molecular vibrations with an effect on the visible spectrum. http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/5B.html
In other words, the scattering, which is not spectrally selective, merely serves to increase the path length that photons travel before reaching a given depth. The color itself is due to vibrational overtones. Thank you, rpenner.
Ice is blue because water is blue. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Woman about to attempt vault of Swimming pool, using pole
Oh, sure. You give rpenner credit for posting one of the other three pages linked to the link that I posted. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I was leaving you some room to 'discover' this for yourself because male egos need feeding. I guess I'll have to give credit to rpenner for pushing those buttons at the top of the page, lol....Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
ice is blue because of the same reason water and the sky is blue. it water absorbs red light but reflects blue. so when you look at it. you will see blue. when you get different coulour blues its normally down to impurities or bacteria in the ice.
though i never wondered it, maybe scattering of light is the reason in this case cause the same is obsereved in sky, isnt it?
