Well seriously H2O is much like yellow food coloring. Ever notice that the Red, Green and Blue are those colors, but the Yellow food color bottle is dark orange? Wha? Water acts like that too. In shallow layers it's light turquoise or "seafoam-green," while in thicker and thicker layers it's bright blue, then blue-black.
Aerial photos of white caribbean beaches show this perfectly: bit.ly / uwxbbL
@Sanotaru92 didn't bother to click on any of the links? Or click "SHOW MORE?"
Get educated. Their demo is with a several-meters pipe full of pure water. The blue color is obvious. The other site shows the absorption spectrum of pure water. It's not flat! Water is colored.
If you have an indoor pool with white sides and bottom, and fill it with water, why does it turn bright blue? Everyone says "it's reflecting the sky!" Lol, it's indoors. It's because water itself is blue. Always has been.
what kind of water are you talking about? there is a lot of kinds of water, depending on the substances that are solved in... The des-ionized and Destiled water, I mean, H2O is aparently Transparent, but you got to make an emision specter!
Not water+dirt or water+algae. Fresh water is blue. Distilled water is blue. DDW is blue. You need >3ft thick before the color is visible. Blue indoor swimming pools with white sides.
Mineral coloration isn't very common. We see dissolved mineral colors in hotsprings, mine tailing streams, industrial waste ponds. Rarely in lakes, rivers, oceans.
Last comment tonight. I enjoyed flipping through your videos. Make more, it's been 2 years. Question: Why is white paper white if you look at the sun directly and it's yellow? Shouldn't white paper be the same color as the sun? There should really only be one color of water, what varies with depth is attenuation.
@bastian74 the sun is actually white. Go look upwards at noon in clear weather, and block the blue sky with your hands so it doesn't mislead.
But seriously, search on "land color theory," Edwin Land. During sunsets when the sun is red, paper still looks white. Brain processing allows eyes with color vision to see surface colors and ignore the illuminator wavelength bias.
@bastian74 the sun is white. you see a yellowish during day and redish during dusk and dawn because the rays of lights are being bounced through our atmosphere allowing only certain colors through
Not sure that is actually water you're looking at. There is a lot of water there, but you can't really call it just water. Last time I boated down the Mississippi, using the same experiment, I could demonstrate that water is similar to that of root beer. Water is the color of light it reflects as a subset of the color of light shining on it.
@bastian74 yep, the mark of clear water is turquoise color in shallows, deep blue in depths, colors really only visible when water is above a white material.
But first read physics sites linked in the caption text, see "SHOW MORE" above.
Tropical shallows are clearest, see photos of white sand bottom under varying depths:
bit.ly / la42nZ
Again, read the above physics & chem sites about water being a blue-colored chemical.
The reason that we see anything at all of the environment around us, is because of sunlight. In the case of the earth, the (white = all colours together) light must pass through earth's atmosphere. The top of the atmosphere is hydrogen, which, seen in depth is blue. Hydrogen also persists down to sea level (but where Nitrogen and oxygen are the larger components.) Therefore, blue will always be a component.
@glutinousmaximus That proves white paint must look blue outdoors? Nope.
Open the above caption, read linked physics articles. Water is actually a blue-colored chemical because of rotational degrees of freedom. Well, the absorption spectrum isn't sharp, so shallow water appears turquoise, and only ~meters deep appears blue. Many *indoor* swimming pools are white, but become blue when full (google images show many.) Like airplane lift, K-12 texts get this wrong, so it's *not* common knowledge
So why is it that we can tell the color of water better when it's deeper? Does it have to do with density? And also, can someone explain in simple terms why water is blue? I'm curious.
@snoopylover8 click SHOW MORE for the text caption? Several different links. Water is blue for the same reason blue paint it blue: water absorbs the red end of the spectrum.
Similar effect: a bottle of yellow food-coloring looks bright orange. A thin layer looks bright yellow. But a very very thin layer has no color.
@UndisclosedDesirable A cup of water has no visible color, unless it's about ten feet deep! Ever been to a swimming pool?
Glass looks clear, but a 1-ft block of window glass looks dark green or blue. Thick layers are strongly colored. Thin layers look transparent. Same with glass, same with water.
To see the color of water you need a white background. Go to a white sandy beach, then look down off the end of a pier. Do this on a cloudy day to prove it's not caused by the blue sky.
@OllieWheats they probably learned it wrong during K-6 grade school. And... if school was this wrong about something so important and simple, why, that means *all of it* could be wrong. We thought we were living in 2010, but it's like we're still in the year 1500
Questioning your textbooks, it's called "critical thinking" and either turns you into a scientist who intentionally questions all assumptions, or perhaps knocks you entirely into distrusting paranoia against all authorities.
@007s00s Don't be stupid. Even liquid mercury isn't 100% reflective. A shiny red car is very reflective, but it doesn't turn blue during sunny days, and neither does the ocean.
Water only acts reflective when light is glancing off at low angles, as when the surface looks bright red at sunset. To see the blue color of water, find photos of white swimming pools. In the Caribbean and tropical beaches the water's blue color is revealed because it's seen up against the white sand bottom.
for some reason i dont really believe you sir. Although the algae and whatever other minerals you mentioned could perhaps tint the water, im pretty sure it is clear and the only reason we perceive it as blue is because of how light entering our atmosphere is filtered due to rayleigh scattering which causes the blue sky. In terms of the water i think it has a tyndall effect because of the blue wavelengths. Perhaps you could shed some light on my theory?
@utubeisretarted Why not? Didn't you click all those links? Two university websites and an education site. (Good idea to read video captions first. "Show more.") As all of them say, water itself provides the blue color. Ultra-pure water is just as blue as ocean water.
Scattering causing the blue of water is an ignorant misconception. If it was scattering, then things would be red when observed through water, analogous to sunsets.
@SabretoothSnowMan Many textbooks are screwy. They say that shorter wavelengths can penetrate water ...but they forget to mention that ANY blue transparent material does the same thing. They forget to mention that air is blue. Blue glass is blue because the short wavelengths can travel deeper into it than the longer ones. Same with blue dye, or blue ink, or clear blue report covers.
Read the linked scientific articles I've provided. They show that ultra-pure distilled water is blue, and that dissolved minerals in oceans do not give blue color. Some ocean water does look opaque blue-green or olive color because of suspended green algae.
I want to send this video to my science teacher in grade school. I scored the highest score on the test in class, and the only question I got wrong was "what color is water". I said blue, she said clear. That was like 25 years ago and I still remember it.
They're the same. Now algae growth makes a big difference, so the cold northern oceans look murky bluegreen-gray. Colored mineral salts (copper, iron) make a difference too.
But tropical oceans look so blue because the water is very clear, with a background of white sand bottom. Warm water breeds viruses which kill off most single-cell algae.
Man, right now I'm wondering just what color is the sky in this poor guy's world: "... the atoms that hold it together", God how depressing; is this country ever in a world of hurt.
By the way, just what color is an atom? Are its protons the same color as its neutrons? I think all electrons probably look like the tip of an eensy-weensy teeny-tiny sparkler!
Do you have a favorite subatomic flavor?
You may think me strange, but I find nothing can top the charm of an upside-down cake's bottom.
I agree! Perhaps read the linked physics/chem sites about the molecular vibrational origin of water's blue color. The text caption is near the "Subscribe" button, click (more info)
H2O is unique in that it's color originates not from electron transitions but from stretch-mode vibrations. In particular the blue coloration is from H2O's 4-quantum (v1+3V3) transition. Note that wavelengths for D2O are longer, and a sea of heavy water would be gray and black.
"The Sky" is a nonexistent blue-colored surface. Physicists for centuries have known that,when we look upwards in daytime, all we see is a layer of sunlit air behind which is the blackness between stars.
Why the blue color? It comes from air, of course. Air is blue for roughly the same reason that bluejay wings and opals are blue: these materials preferentially scatter shorter wavelengths. There are no pigments in bluejay wings, nor in sky-blue opals, nor in N2/O2 gas
Great video. I've learned something new today \o/. it's a pity that all of these things people keep saying in the comments are the same and can be disproved with an almost copy and paste answer.
efffing physics people. crap i learned this stuff in high school. the water absorbs red light: reflecting all colors minus red= blue or turquoise depending on contaminants. Most plant vegetation reflects green because it absorbs red and blue, so your pretty much left with green light. The sky is blue for the same reason as water by the way.
Heavy water D2O has no color. Normal light water is very very slightly blue. As with muddy rivers, a glass of the water looks clear. But a many-yards deep pool of water appears blue, especially if it's seen against a white sandy bottom.
See the "text caption" over to the right. It's under the yellow SUBSCRIBE button. Click on (more info,) then go to the several links.
Those physics and chemistry websites will answer your questions. Yes, H2O molecules are weakly blue, like a dilute blue dye. You can't see water's blue color unless you have a few meters thick layer (e.g. a swimming pool painted white.)
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water is white, the thing which makes it green or dark blue are the alga's and the deepness of it, the deeper the water is, so darker is it because it does swallow the light....
White like snow? I think you meant "colorless transparent." Don't make up fake explanations, instead try clicking on the several physics links over to the right. Water is a blue-colored chemical, as shown in measured absorption spectra.
The color of pure water is weak, so in order to see it, you need a water layer several meters thick with a white background below it.
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The colour of water is white, because when you go to the beach, the sea looks blue but thats only because its reflecting off the sky. When you pour a glass of water, it looks white and thats what the normal colour is because it isn't relecting off anything, which is why it shows its natural colour= white.
Not exactly true, since hot objects radiate EM waves, not strictly infrared waves. See Dr. Craig Bohren's book for a good rant about this common physics misconception and the damage it does to students' thinking. Tom Edison made millions because heat generates visible light. Very cold objects mostly radiate in the microwave spectrum. Halogen lamp filaments put out visible and UV. A-bombs put out x-rays. It depends on the temperature of the object.
our relation to colour versus the actual physics in cause is conflicting indeed. physics FTW! I don't remember learning much about the spectrum and mechanics of light in high school. Is it just me?
I remember learning some misconceptions. Infrared is a form of heat (no it's not.) The rainbow contains all colors (no, it contains all visible wavelengths, but magenta and cyan are colors, so is brown, so is white.)
In undergrad physics we learn that color is mostly psychological, while wavelength is physics.
In fact, the reflections on waves are sky blue, but between the reflections is the color of water. With muddy rivers the reflections are also sky-blue, but between the reflections is brown water.
Just think of a red car under a blue sky. The reflections are bright blue. But the car is still red. With blue oceans it's more confusing, since you have to distinguish the light blue reflections from the darker blue water.
For actual scientific websites, click on those links in the caption. Then look at jpegs of white-painted sqimming pools. Water is a blue chemical (however D2O heavy water is not.) As with any liquid dye, very thin layers look clear, and very thick layers look nearly black. The color of water is very dilute, so it only becomes visible when the layer is over ~1M thick.
No, ozone is no more blue than other gases. All gases "are blue" because they scatter blue light. Gases are also red, for light sources viewed through a gas layer (sunset.)
The sky is blue "because" people far downrange are seeing a red sunset.
Actually they say the sky is blue because of the gases in the atmosphere that absorb the blue in white light and scatter it out in different directions.
Young children think that there's a solid ceiling called "the sky" hanging above us. Why does that solid ceiling have a blue color? Answer: there is no sky. There's only a thick cloud of air up there. When you look upwards, you're seeing air which is lit up by sunlight. Air has a blue color because its molecules scatter the shorter light waves. (Smoke can do the same, when incense smoke looks blue rather than white.)
Most people, when they find out that air is colored blue, they get angry and start arguing. They want the blue color to be part of "the sky," and they don't want it to be part of the nitrogen and oxygen.
Daddy, why is the sky blue? Answer: because air is blue.
Daddy, why is air blue? Answer: because light can reflect off of individual air molecules, just like with smoke or clouds. When particles are small, they reflect more blue wavelengths than red wavelengths.
Thats exactly what I just said... I said when people say sky they mean the atmosphere, the atmosphere is made of air and the air is blue, but u dont say the air is blue, u say the sky.
> I said when people say sky they mean the atmosphere
And I said, when people say sky, they *don't* mean the atmosphere.
When told that air itself has a blue color, most people get angry *because* they believe that air is a totally transparent substance, and has no color at all.
Because of this wrong belief, they can listen to an explanation of the blue sky, but they won't understand it. They won't accept that it's an explanation of the blue color of air itself.
That's the confusion right there. The gas is blue because of shortwave scattering. The gas is blue, not the sky. When you look up, you don't see "sky." There is no "sky" up there. All you see is a cloud of blue nitrogen/oxygen against the black of outer space, and lit from the side by sunlight.
When looking a the ocean it mearly reflecting the sky heance its illulison of colour, when you ask the question of why the sky is blue, it also reflects off the ocean. This Experment is being conducted in the wrong setting therefore making wbeaty's scientific conclusion faulse.
> When looking a the ocean it mearly reflecting the sky heance its illusion of color
WATCH the video. That sky is overcast and gray, yet the ocean is still blue, not gray. It's easy to fool yourself and ignore this fact, and never ask yourself "how can the ocean still be blue without a blue sky?"
> question of why the sky is blue, it also reflects off the ocean.
That ocean is blue, but the sky is gray and overcast. The sky should be blue, since it's reflecting the blue ocean!
In small lakes in rivers, but not in open ocean. Microbes mostly make the water opaque in northern climate. But there's far less stuff in tropical water, so you can see the bottom much deeper.
The explanation for the color of water is simple and well-known science. But it's missing from introductory science texts. Try reading the physics websites linked in the caption above right.
Nope, that's the myth, and it's kept alive by plain ignorance.
Everyone spreads this myth. Why not instead get curious and read a science text, or even click on physics websites? Try The links in the text caption, above right.
Scientists figured out the explanation long ago. It's quite simple: water is a blue-colored chemical. It's blue when seen inside a long, water-filled pipe. It's blue when seen in indoor pools where there is no sky reflection.
this is just one misconception in science... if we take a glass of water we can see that it is transparent.. but we don't know that it is actually very very very slightly blue.. and we can only see it if the water is many feet wide...
> why does oxygen or nitrogen not work on in the same way?
The blue color of water is caused by an absorption resonance of the H2O molecule at 760nM. Interestingly enough, this frequency for heavy water D2O is far away from the visible wavelengths, so an ocean made of heavy water would be grey-black, not blue.
Take a look at a little bottle of yellow food coloring. It's dark red-orange. That dye is only yellow in small diluted quantities.
Water is like a dye, and it behaves in a similar way: it's turquoise (blue-green) in shallow layers a few feet thick. Thicker layers are bright blue, and very deep water is blue-black. Find some aerial photos of Caribbean white beaches, with various depths of water having various blue colors.
nah, its because the colour in the sky reflects off the water, so looking at a careabean beach, the deeper the water, the less white sand u wil be able to see, so therefore reflecting a darker shade of blue.
> nah, it's because the colour in the sky reflects off the water.
First, WATCH THE VIDEO. The sky is overcast gray, yet the water is brightly colored.
Second, the entire scientific community disagrees with you. Sky reflections only give color to the water's bright reflections, not to the water itself. Example: a red car looks red, but it's glancing reflections are blue like the sky.
So, Sorry If I've Missed Something, Is A Glass Of Water Only Clear Because It's Not Got The Minerals Or Particles That Makes The Sea Blue, Or Is It Just That There Simply Isn't A Big Enough Volume Of Water In the Glass For It To Look Blue?
Water acts like very dilute blue dye. To see the slightest tinge of color, the water needs to be thicker than about half a meter. You'd never see it in a glass of water or a bathtub. Probably the water in a white-painted hot tub would look slightly blue-green.
ya the deapest u go the darkest the water but thats bcoz theres no light so technicaly water exepts the color depending on what it works on it so technicaly we could find the real color of the water-in a plase where there is no other colot inclooding black -=>means the water is shear color (that kinda kolor doesent exist,onely the efect does so) damn i got comfused
Find some white-painted indoor swimming pools on youtube. (Indoor, so no blue sky above.) There are hundreds of vids. Try the SETT, or "deepest swimming pool." The water in shallow pools is bright turquoise color. The deep end is blue.
perhaps i'm out of my league here, but it seems i read the color of water is attributed to the minerals present in that water. and, the colors change as different oceans embody different minerals.
Read the physics papers instead (see the links.) With a white sand bottom, extremely pure fresh water appears just as blue as ocean water.
H2O molecules absorb the red end of the spectrum, or in other words, water is the same as a very weak blue dye. To clearly see its color, you need a white background, and a layer of water a couple meters thick.
water is clear. go to the ocean and get a bucket of water and look at it. it might look blue but its really not. mainly looks blue due to the reflection of the sky.
Missed the above video, eh? Where the sky is overcast gray, yet water is blue?
Click on the science links to learn the truth.
Glass looks clear until you see a thick block of it (or look into the edge of plate glass.) Water looks clear until you see a 30ft icecube... or notice a white-painted indoor swimming pool that's blue when filled.
lucb1e, realy, if we had better eyes, nothing would be transparent. transpareny comes from letting all the rays of radiation through it. but VERY few still stop at it right? yet we cant see them. think of a brick. if all the rays of light went through it, we couldnt see the color right? so on water, its just like that. we cant REALY see it. the light is reflected off of it, we cant see it. it dosnt meen there is no color because we cant prove it with our eyes.
Most people learned this misconception from their grade-school textbooks.
If they ever looked at the situation honestly, and admitted that their books got ONE thing wrong ...then it opens the door to the appalling notion that their textbooks got MANY things wrong.
They'd rather reject the accurate blue-water explanation, than accept the possibility that their grade-school science knowledge might be full of mistakes.
"Whenever someone makes a strong statement then says "period," it always means that they have no arguments to back up their position."
never say always, there always can be an exeption ;)
because: my argument is that water just appears to have a color. The particles between the water molecules have a color, or water reflects the color of something above it. But water itself hasn't really got a color.
Your "argument" still boils down to a statement. "Pure water is colorless."
To sway anyone, you'll need to debunk the chemist at Dartmouth University who shows that ultra-pure water is blue, gives the absorption vs. wavelength, and provides a photograph of it. And debunk the London U. physicist who goes into much greater detail. Then attack the research papers they cite as reference.
Preserving your mistake about water is easy: just refuse to click on "(more info)" or follow those links.
Whenever someone makes a strong statement then says "period," it always means that they have no arguments to back up their position. (If they did, they'd present arguments instead of saying "period.")
To read some physics and chemistry articles about the details of water's blue color, just click on the caption to the right (it says "more info.") There is one from Dartmoth university, from U. of london, and on Wikipedia there are links to others.
Don't trust chemistry websites which say that it's blue. Don't trust physics papers which analyze the details of the source of it's blue color. Don't trust your eyes when you see thousands of photos of troptical blue shallow water in front of a background of white sand.
Go buy a package of food colors. Look at the yellow bottle. It's dark orange!! Yet in shallow layers or much dilution it's yellow. And put a drop into a swimming pool ...and the color is far to weak to see.
Pay attention: the "obvious" explanation falls apart if your video is made on a cloudy day. No blue sky. The shiny reflections on the waves are certainly as grey as the sky, yet we still see blues and turquoise where the white bubbles are a few meters deep.
His Right all so its blue becouse its deep and the sun light cant reach to the end of the botom its dark and it looks blue and wbeaty is right its turkiz
Shallow sea with white sand is turquoise even on cloudy days. And a long pipe filled with pure water appears blue when you look through it. Why? Physicists say it's simple: water is a blue-colored chemical ...but the light-absorption is small, so it only becomes visible when looking through several meters of water.
Try clicking on some of the links to the websites about H2O absorption spectrum.
Pay attention: the "obvious" explanation falls apart if your video is made on a cloudy day. No blue sky. The shiny reflections on the waves are certainly as grey as the sky, yet we still see blues and turquoise where the white bubbles are a few meters deep.
oh and another ps. it is Blue to You. color perception is a relative thing. Like if a color blind person sees water and it is not blue, then it would be rather inaccurate to call it blue wouldn't it. Considering that your eyes, and human eyes altogether, are a minority in this world, then water may not actually be blue.
Good philosophical point - but color is not completely a matter of opinion.
It has an absolute quality in its composition of wavelengths, and even a color blind person can measure these wavelengths to find the "color". That how we measure IR and UV light... no one can actually see them, but everyone can differentiate between them.
That's a type of fallacy, a valid point which masks an attempt to sow confusion. Yes, ALL COLOR has a psychological component. But when someone mentions green grass or red apples, do you always start a big philosophical debate and try to disprove the existence of color? I bet not.
Water is blue for the same basic reasons that chlorophyll is green: you're looking at a chemical which absorbs certain frequencies in the visible spectrum.
Cherry soda is transparent, but not necessarily translucent! (See, I can make stuff up out of thin air too. Never actually *look* at a particular brand of soda.)
But this is an exercise for people more argumentative than honest.
Go get a glass of water. Put a couple of drops of food color in it. It turns colored, yet remains transparent.
Out of curiosity, since I legitimately don't know, could water really be considered transparent? In smaller samples, it's obvious that it is. Go a bit deeper, and it will be more translucent than anything. Deeper yet, and no light will get through it at all. I feel like I'm not making sense here, and I'm probably not. It's been a while since I've taken a science class. =(
Sure, since "transparent" verus "opaque" is a matter of thickness. You can see the sun through very thin metal or a think coating of ink, but it's totally opaque when thick.
Water's opaque for many hundreds of feet of thickness, that's why it's so black down deep.
What if humans were 500ft tall rather than 5ft? Then we'd *know* that water was blue. For us a cup of water would be 30ft thick and appear bright blue. A bathtub would be 100ft deep, and colored too blue/black to even see the bottom.
If we were 50,000ft tall, then water in an eyedropper might look as black as ink, and a tiny droplet of water would be 50ft across and appear deep blue.
You missed the point: the sky in this video is gray and overcast. But the water stays blue. Why? Because water has always been blue, all by itself, and the sky is not needed. Scientists know this, but the general public does not. Click on the links to various articles.
Not quite. Water's strong blue color is caused by absorption. But yes, there must also be a bit of scattering (algae, Raman,) otherwise the blue light would never bounce back upwards.
The discovery that earned C. V. Raman the 1930 Nobel Prize in physics was born of an investigation of light sparked by a question a child might ask. Returning to his native India by way of the Mediterranean Sea, Raman wondered at the sea's deep blue color. Dissatisfied with the prevailing explanation— that it reflected the sky— he delved further and demonstrated a universal truth.
And even if the strong blue light is by absorption, technically it wouldn't need algae or anything else to cause scattering, for the blue to be visible- the immersed bubbles that bounce off the white coloured light is like a background to the water ahead of it.
> the appearance of colour in water comes not from H2O itself but from the impurities
Confident statements are worthless if not backed up by actual evidence.
If you believe that the absorption spectrum of pure water is flat, you're simply wrong. Pure water is blue. A good collection of links to physics articles is on wikipedia under "color of water." Try U. of LSB, tinyurl com/6de9fl which explains the details. Or the popular article about it, "Color from Vibrations," tinyurl com/8zv232
"simply wrong". LOL. some scientist you are. stuff that is right yesterday is wrong today no matter how much prooof you have. if YOU don't know that then you are a newb.
> This is as daft as saying 'air is blue because the sky is blue'.
Most people have no idea why oceans are blue. They'll say that the blue comes from sky reflections. The smarter ones think it's blue because of Tyndall effect: because H2O molecules scatter light. Both answers are wrong because both assume that water itself is colorless.
Major clue: as with any colored liquid, the absorption spectrum of liquid H2O is not flat. Also, liquid H2O looks blue, while liquid D2O does not.
What Color is Automatic transmission fluid? Red.Now look at 500 gals of it in a tank.Its no longer Red its more black.Its what all Fluids do with wavelengths of light.
Back in the 1800s, scientists thought that the color of water came from scattering.
Then they found that ultra-pure water was still blue.
Today molecular vibration theory describes the blue color of water correctly. It really is a blue-colored chemical (well, it's turquoise-colored at shallower depths.)
Don't believe youtube comments. Don't believe ME. The briefest search on "color of water" finds univerity physics pages that tell the real story.
The reason the water looks blue is because the deeper you go, the more colors in the spectrum are filtered out. Red is the first to go, whereas blue is the last visible color before total darkness. They teach that in Open Water Scuba classes.
I would imagine the water would have some coloration due to the salt & other minerals, but since the red was filtered almost immediately, it gave the illusion of turquoise. That's why deeper it appeared to be blue, because the green was being filtered.
The main reason the ocean is blue is because water itself is a blue-colored chemical. Optical scattering from water molecules provides a second source of the blue color, but colored light caused by scattering only becomes significant with extremely pure water. According to the frequency spectra for pure liquid water, a short water column has a very light shade of turquoise blue. Thicker layers appear much darker blue. Only when collected in a large body, water's blue color becomes apparent.
Red has the lowest wavelenght, so it passes more matter. Blue is shortest and it doesn't go very far. Check few space images and notice that they are reddish, thats how they calculate matter in the nebulas etc. I think your scuba teacher had a science misconseption there.
water is every color :o
xXRonzellXx 2 months ago
@xXRonzellXx That's why it's blue!
Well seriously H2O is much like yellow food coloring. Ever notice that the Red, Green and Blue are those colors, but the Yellow food color bottle is dark orange? Wha? Water acts like that too. In shallow layers it's light turquoise or "seafoam-green," while in thicker and thicker layers it's bright blue, then blue-black.
Aerial photos of white caribbean beaches show this perfectly: bit.ly / uwxbbL
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wbeaty 2 months ago
@wbeaty Distiled water is blue? Looool
Sanotaru92 3 months ago
@Sanotaru92 didn't bother to click on any of the links? Or click "SHOW MORE?"
Get educated. Their demo is with a several-meters pipe full of pure water. The blue color is obvious. The other site shows the absorption spectrum of pure water. It's not flat! Water is colored.
If you have an indoor pool with white sides and bottom, and fill it with water, why does it turn bright blue? Everyone says "it's reflecting the sky!" Lol, it's indoors. It's because water itself is blue. Always has been.
wbeaty 3 months ago
what kind of water are you talking about? there is a lot of kinds of water, depending on the substances that are solved in... The des-ionized and Destiled water, I mean, H2O is aparently Transparent, but you got to make an emision specter!
Sanotaru92 3 months ago
@Sanotaru92 Water, obviously.
Not water+dirt or water+algae. Fresh water is blue. Distilled water is blue. DDW is blue. You need >3ft thick before the color is visible. Blue indoor swimming pools with white sides.
Mineral coloration isn't very common. We see dissolved mineral colors in hotsprings, mine tailing streams, industrial waste ponds. Rarely in lakes, rivers, oceans.
wbeaty 3 months ago
Last comment tonight. I enjoyed flipping through your videos. Make more, it's been 2 years. Question: Why is white paper white if you look at the sun directly and it's yellow? Shouldn't white paper be the same color as the sun? There should really only be one color of water, what varies with depth is attenuation.
bastian74 7 months ago
@bastian74 the sun is actually white. Go look upwards at noon in clear weather, and block the blue sky with your hands so it doesn't mislead.
But seriously, search on "land color theory," Edwin Land. During sunsets when the sun is red, paper still looks white. Brain processing allows eyes with color vision to see surface colors and ignore the illuminator wavelength bias.
wbeaty 7 months ago
@bastian74 the sun is white. you see a yellowish during day and redish during dusk and dawn because the rays of lights are being bounced through our atmosphere allowing only certain colors through
LongHairedAntelope 6 months ago
Not sure that is actually water you're looking at. There is a lot of water there, but you can't really call it just water. Last time I boated down the Mississippi, using the same experiment, I could demonstrate that water is similar to that of root beer. Water is the color of light it reflects as a subset of the color of light shining on it.
bastian74 7 months ago
@bastian74 yep, the mark of clear water is turquoise color in shallows, deep blue in depths, colors really only visible when water is above a white material.
But first read physics sites linked in the caption text, see "SHOW MORE" above.
Tropical shallows are clearest, see photos of white sand bottom under varying depths:
bit.ly / la42nZ
Again, read the above physics & chem sites about water being a blue-colored chemical.
wbeaty 7 months ago
The reason that we see anything at all of the environment around us, is because of sunlight. In the case of the earth, the (white = all colours together) light must pass through earth's atmosphere. The top of the atmosphere is hydrogen, which, seen in depth is blue. Hydrogen also persists down to sea level (but where Nitrogen and oxygen are the larger components.) Therefore, blue will always be a component.
glutinousmaximus 8 months ago
@glutinousmaximus That proves white paint must look blue outdoors? Nope.
Open the above caption, read linked physics articles. Water is actually a blue-colored chemical because of rotational degrees of freedom. Well, the absorption spectrum isn't sharp, so shallow water appears turquoise, and only ~meters deep appears blue. Many *indoor* swimming pools are white, but become blue when full (google images show many.) Like airplane lift, K-12 texts get this wrong, so it's *not* common knowledge
wbeaty 8 months ago
So why is it that we can tell the color of water better when it's deeper? Does it have to do with density? And also, can someone explain in simple terms why water is blue? I'm curious.
snoopylover8 8 months ago
@snoopylover8 click SHOW MORE for the text caption? Several different links. Water is blue for the same reason blue paint it blue: water absorbs the red end of the spectrum.
Similar effect: a bottle of yellow food-coloring looks bright orange. A thin layer looks bright yellow. But a very very thin layer has no color.
wbeaty 7 months ago
I'm holding up a glass of tap water right now, tbh, it has no actual colour, but a theory.. it may have all the colours into 1
UndisclosedDesirable 9 months ago
@UndisclosedDesirable A cup of water has no visible color, unless it's about ten feet deep! Ever been to a swimming pool?
Glass looks clear, but a 1-ft block of window glass looks dark green or blue. Thick layers are strongly colored. Thin layers look transparent. Same with glass, same with water.
To see the color of water you need a white background. Go to a white sandy beach, then look down off the end of a pier. Do this on a cloudy day to prove it's not caused by the blue sky.
wbeaty 9 months ago
@wbeaty Thx for the info, I'm pretty sure i'll check that out. :-)
UndisclosedDesirable 9 months ago
can't believe the stubbornness of the people rejecting this... it's obvious isn't it!?
OllieWheats 10 months ago
@OllieWheats they probably learned it wrong during K-6 grade school. And... if school was this wrong about something so important and simple, why, that means *all of it* could be wrong. We thought we were living in 2010, but it's like we're still in the year 1500
Questioning your textbooks, it's called "critical thinking" and either turns you into a scientist who intentionally questions all assumptions, or perhaps knocks you entirely into distrusting paranoia against all authorities.
wbeaty 7 months ago
water has no color cause 100% of it is reflective
007s00s 10 months ago
@007s00s Don't be stupid. Even liquid mercury isn't 100% reflective. A shiny red car is very reflective, but it doesn't turn blue during sunny days, and neither does the ocean.
Water only acts reflective when light is glancing off at low angles, as when the surface looks bright red at sunset. To see the blue color of water, find photos of white swimming pools. In the Caribbean and tropical beaches the water's blue color is revealed because it's seen up against the white sand bottom.
wbeaty 10 months ago 5
@007s00s Snell's law would beg to differ.
nazaxprime 8 months ago
for some reason i dont really believe you sir. Although the algae and whatever other minerals you mentioned could perhaps tint the water, im pretty sure it is clear and the only reason we perceive it as blue is because of how light entering our atmosphere is filtered due to rayleigh scattering which causes the blue sky. In terms of the water i think it has a tyndall effect because of the blue wavelengths. Perhaps you could shed some light on my theory?
utubeisretarted 11 months ago
> for some reason i don't really believe you sir.
@utubeisretarted Why not? Didn't you click all those links? Two university websites and an education site. (Good idea to read video captions first. "Show more.") As all of them say, water itself provides the blue color. Ultra-pure water is just as blue as ocean water.
Scattering causing the blue of water is an ignorant misconception. If it was scattering, then things would be red when observed through water, analogous to sunsets.
wbeaty 11 months ago
water is the lightest shade of blue...dig a hole in snow to see.. only possible to see the colour when its condenst
YeesusKrist 1 year ago
ok i knew this i was hoping you were going to say the wrong answer DAMN you were right
alewisgb 1 year ago
i wish you were my science teacher
IndayLancer 1 year ago
ok what color is a mirror?
altoids79762 1 year ago
It is transparent, just that long wave lenghths like red cannot penatrate as far as the short blue waves lengths.
SabretoothSnowMan 1 year ago
@SabretoothSnowMan Many textbooks are screwy. They say that shorter wavelengths can penetrate water ...but they forget to mention that ANY blue transparent material does the same thing. They forget to mention that air is blue. Blue glass is blue because the short wavelengths can travel deeper into it than the longer ones. Same with blue dye, or blue ink, or clear blue report covers.
wbeaty 1 year ago
blank
Adilshit 1 year ago
totaly clear water i colourles this coloring comes from dirt or minerals !
TheAteston 1 year ago
@TheAteston Wrong.
Read the linked scientific articles I've provided. They show that ultra-pure distilled water is blue, and that dissolved minerals in oceans do not give blue color. Some ocean water does look opaque blue-green or olive color because of suspended green algae.
wbeaty 1 year ago
I want to send this video to my science teacher in grade school. I scored the highest score on the test in class, and the only question I got wrong was "what color is water". I said blue, she said clear. That was like 25 years ago and I still remember it.
jonnyfilmboy 1 year ago 2
If you bottled that water, and brought it inside, would it be blue any longer?
TyKexBK 1 year ago
water is a bit blue kinda substance.
WhY? Because it has oxygen in it and oxygen is a blue gas
TheScienceTestTV 1 year ago
Hm.... What about freshwater and tap water?
DeltaPhi79 2 years ago
> freshwater and tap water?
They're the same. Now algae growth makes a big difference, so the cold northern oceans look murky bluegreen-gray. Colored mineral salts (copper, iron) make a difference too.
But tropical oceans look so blue because the water is very clear, with a background of white sand bottom. Warm water breeds viruses which kill off most single-cell algae.
wbeaty 2 years ago
what a beatiful colour...you just gotta love it :D
dimoschka 2 years ago
Man, right now I'm wondering just what color is the sky in this poor guy's world: "... the atoms that hold it together", God how depressing; is this country ever in a world of hurt.
By the way, just what color is an atom? Are its protons the same color as its neutrons? I think all electrons probably look like the tip of an eensy-weensy teeny-tiny sparkler!
Do you have a favorite subatomic flavor?
You may think me strange, but I find nothing can top the charm of an upside-down cake's bottom.
XavierNinnis 2 years ago
> this country is ever
I agree! Perhaps read the linked physics/chem sites about the molecular vibrational origin of water's blue color. The text caption is near the "Subscribe" button, click (more info)
H2O is unique in that it's color originates not from electron transitions but from stretch-mode vibrations. In particular the blue coloration is from H2O's 4-quantum (v1+3V3) transition. Note that wavelengths for D2O are longer, and a sea of heavy water would be gray and black.
wbeaty 2 years ago
> what color is the sky
"The Sky" is a nonexistent blue-colored surface. Physicists for centuries have known that,when we look upwards in daytime, all we see is a layer of sunlit air behind which is the blackness between stars.
Why the blue color? It comes from air, of course. Air is blue for roughly the same reason that bluejay wings and opals are blue: these materials preferentially scatter shorter wavelengths. There are no pigments in bluejay wings, nor in sky-blue opals, nor in N2/O2 gas
wbeaty 2 years ago 2
Great video. I've learned something new today \o/. it's a pity that all of these things people keep saying in the comments are the same and can be disproved with an almost copy and paste answer.
joyting 2 years ago 9
efffing physics people. crap i learned this stuff in high school. the water absorbs red light: reflecting all colors minus red= blue or turquoise depending on contaminants. Most plant vegetation reflects green because it absorbs red and blue, so your pretty much left with green light. The sky is blue for the same reason as water by the way.
onionofdeath 2 years ago
Water has no color
metallicabillxxx 2 years ago
Heavy water D2O has no color. Normal light water is very very slightly blue. As with muddy rivers, a glass of the water looks clear. But a many-yards deep pool of water appears blue, especially if it's seen against a white sandy bottom.
wbeaty 2 years ago
water is blue
itsjustutube1 2 years ago
water is clear and it's blue comes from spectrum of red. other colors comre from it's contaminents. dark blue comes from a greater deepness.
TheUFOeffect 2 years ago
> water is clear
Physicists say you're wrong. Read a few of the websites linked in the caption to the right.
> it's blue comes from spectrum of red
When something absorbs the red end of the spectrum, we call that substance "blue colored." Blue glass is that way. So is water.
Water is actually a blue chemical. The blue is very feeble, so it's only visible when there's a lot of water.
But also, D2O heavy water is NOT a blue substance. An ocean of D2O would be black with grey shallows.
wbeaty 2 years ago
water is acutally a blue chemical...really? are you sayign the atoms that hold it together are blue? your sayign the atoms of H and O are blue.
TheUFOeffect 2 years ago
> are you saying
Not just me, check out the professional research.
See the "text caption" over to the right. It's under the yellow SUBSCRIBE button. Click on (more info,) then go to the several links.
Those physics and chemistry websites will answer your questions. Yes, H2O molecules are weakly blue, like a dilute blue dye. You can't see water's blue color unless you have a few meters thick layer (e.g. a swimming pool painted white.)
wbeaty 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
water is white, the thing which makes it green or dark blue are the alga's and the deepness of it, the deeper the water is, so darker is it because it does swallow the light....
Scorpac 2 years ago
> water is white
White like snow? I think you meant "colorless transparent." Don't make up fake explanations, instead try clicking on the several physics links over to the right. Water is a blue-colored chemical, as shown in measured absorption spectra.
The color of pure water is weak, so in order to see it, you need a water layer several meters thick with a white background below it.
wbeaty 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
The colour of water is white, because when you go to the beach, the sea looks blue but thats only because its reflecting off the sky. When you pour a glass of water, it looks white and thats what the normal colour is because it isn't relecting off anything, which is why it shows its natural colour= white.
coolwannabe123 2 years ago
> reflecting off the sky
Notice that the sky in this video is overcast gray. Yet the water behind the ship is not gray, but instead has many blue and blue-green colors.
For an explanation, click on any of the physics/chemistry websites listed to the right.
wbeaty 2 years ago
thats awesome..
psyscleuno 2 years ago
infrared is indeed not a form of heat, but heat generates infrared radiation.
saivert 2 years ago
> heat generates infrared radiation
Not exactly true, since hot objects radiate EM waves, not strictly infrared waves. See Dr. Craig Bohren's book for a good rant about this common physics misconception and the damage it does to students' thinking. Tom Edison made millions because heat generates visible light. Very cold objects mostly radiate in the microwave spectrum. Halogen lamp filaments put out visible and UV. A-bombs put out x-rays. It depends on the temperature of the object.
wbeaty 2 years ago
our relation to colour versus the actual physics in cause is conflicting indeed. physics FTW! I don't remember learning much about the spectrum and mechanics of light in high school. Is it just me?
NapoleonLouverture 2 years ago
> Is it just me?
I remember learning some misconceptions. Infrared is a form of heat (no it's not.) The rainbow contains all colors (no, it contains all visible wavelengths, but magenta and cyan are colors, so is brown, so is white.)
In undergrad physics we learn that color is mostly psychological, while wavelength is physics.
wbeaty 2 years ago
i thought oceans and lakes had color cause they were reflecting the sky
AIC50CAL 2 years ago
> they were reflecting the sky
That's the misconception.
In fact, the reflections on waves are sky blue, but between the reflections is the color of water. With muddy rivers the reflections are also sky-blue, but between the reflections is brown water.
Just think of a red car under a blue sky. The reflections are bright blue. But the car is still red. With blue oceans it's more confusing, since you have to distinguish the light blue reflections from the darker blue water.
wbeaty 2 years ago
water has no color.... whater is invisible if it stands still.... only the things in it make it looking like a color
Scorpac 2 years ago
> water has no color
For actual scientific websites, click on those links in the caption. Then look at jpegs of white-painted sqimming pools. Water is a blue chemical (however D2O heavy water is not.) As with any liquid dye, very thin layers look clear, and very thick layers look nearly black. The color of water is very dilute, so it only becomes visible when the layer is over ~1M thick.
wbeaty 2 years ago
That aye true
coolwannabe123 2 years ago
they also say that the sky is blue because of the light reflecting off the ocean and due to gases in the air causes the mirror effect.
ChrisMansfield3run 2 years ago
i heared that the sky is blue because the ozone is a blue colored gas
it's this true?
(sorry for my english)
Josechuman 2 years ago
No, ozone is no more blue than other gases. All gases "are blue" because they scatter blue light. Gases are also red, for light sources viewed through a gas layer (sunset.)
The sky is blue "because" people far downrange are seeing a red sunset.
wbeaty 2 years ago
Actually they say the sky is blue because of the gases in the atmosphere that absorb the blue in white light and scatter it out in different directions.
PutNameHere15 2 years ago
No, that's why *air* looks blue.
Young children think that there's a solid ceiling called "the sky" hanging above us. Why does that solid ceiling have a blue color? Answer: there is no sky. There's only a thick cloud of air up there. When you look upwards, you're seeing air which is lit up by sunlight. Air has a blue color because its molecules scatter the shorter light waves. (Smoke can do the same, when incense smoke looks blue rather than white.)
wbeaty 2 years ago
By "the sky" i meant u look up, u see blue, 'course its just the the air but people mean the atmosphere when they say sky, and it has a blue color.
PutNameHere15 2 years ago
> 'course it's just air
Most people, when they find out that air is colored blue, they get angry and start arguing. They want the blue color to be part of "the sky," and they don't want it to be part of the nitrogen and oxygen.
Daddy, why is the sky blue? Answer: because air is blue.
Daddy, why is air blue? Answer: because light can reflect off of individual air molecules, just like with smoke or clouds. When particles are small, they reflect more blue wavelengths than red wavelengths.
wbeaty 2 years ago
Thats exactly what I just said... I said when people say sky they mean the atmosphere, the atmosphere is made of air and the air is blue, but u dont say the air is blue, u say the sky.
PutNameHere15 2 years ago
> I said when people say sky they mean the atmosphere
And I said, when people say sky, they *don't* mean the atmosphere.
When told that air itself has a blue color, most people get angry *because* they believe that air is a totally transparent substance, and has no color at all.
Because of this wrong belief, they can listen to an explanation of the blue sky, but they won't understand it. They won't accept that it's an explanation of the blue color of air itself.
wbeaty 2 years ago
That's the confusion right there. The gas is blue because of shortwave scattering. The gas is blue, not the sky. When you look up, you don't see "sky." There is no "sky" up there. All you see is a cloud of blue nitrogen/oxygen against the black of outer space, and lit from the side by sunlight.
wbeaty 2 years ago
the frequency of light coming from the sun reflects off particals in the atmosphere is blue. or something :D
TheMonkeyBrothers 2 years ago
no;]
J4M3SPR 2 years ago
When looking a the ocean it mearly reflecting the sky heance its illulison of colour, when you ask the question of why the sky is blue, it also reflects off the ocean. This Experment is being conducted in the wrong setting therefore making wbeaty's scientific conclusion faulse.
2milan3 2 years ago
> When looking a the ocean it mearly reflecting the sky heance its illusion of color
WATCH the video. That sky is overcast and gray, yet the ocean is still blue, not gray. It's easy to fool yourself and ignore this fact, and never ask yourself "how can the ocean still be blue without a blue sky?"
> question of why the sky is blue, it also reflects off the ocean.
That ocean is blue, but the sky is gray and overcast. The sky should be blue, since it's reflecting the blue ocean!
wbeaty 2 years ago
do living organisms, plant matter or sand/dirt deposits all contribute to the variations in the colour of water in different parts of the world?
tomweavin64 2 years ago
>contribute to the variations
In small lakes in rivers, but not in open ocean. Microbes mostly make the water opaque in northern climate. But there's far less stuff in tropical water, so you can see the bottom much deeper.
wbeaty 2 years ago
interesting, that'll explain why we can't see through about a millimetre of water here in the uk! haha
tomweavin64 2 years ago
HA, the water is not turquoise, the bubbles are not white. These things are what we refer to as "optical illusions"
Perhaps suspended particles create the illusion of color, but H2O is transparent.
mvallin 2 years ago
The explanation for the color of water is simple and well-known science. But it's missing from introductory science texts. Try reading the physics websites linked in the caption above right.
wbeaty 2 years ago
Why is the sky blue? ;o
And that's why the Ocean is blue too.
Potsirc 2 years ago
> That's why the Ocean is blue too.
Nope, that's the myth, and it's kept alive by plain ignorance.
Everyone spreads this myth. Why not instead get curious and read a science text, or even click on physics websites? Try The links in the text caption, above right.
Scientists figured out the explanation long ago. It's quite simple: water is a blue-colored chemical. It's blue when seen inside a long, water-filled pipe. It's blue when seen in indoor pools where there is no sky reflection.
wbeaty 2 years ago
this is just one misconception in science... if we take a glass of water we can see that it is transparent.. but we don't know that it is actually very very very slightly blue.. and we can only see it if the water is many feet wide...
^^
selenacamille101 2 years ago 11
the water is an incomprensible material...
wingedsephiroth 2 years ago
Comment removed
wingedsephiroth 2 years ago
So just to clarify, water is actually blue and the shade of blue is determined by the amount of water.
So if water is blue in large volumes then why does oxygen or nitrogen not work in the same way?
Very interesting.
Btw, the water in most rivers I've seen is like a murky green/brown (due to mud I know but why green?)
illuminastymusic 2 years ago
plankton n other small planty life forms[:
HauntKettle 2 years ago
> why does oxygen or nitrogen not work on in the same way?
The blue color of water is caused by an absorption resonance of the H2O molecule at 760nM. Interestingly enough, this frequency for heavy water D2O is far away from the visible wavelengths, so an ocean made of heavy water would be grey-black, not blue.
wbeaty 2 years ago
LOL no SHIT@
Etern4lSlay3r 2 years ago
FINALLY another, living, human being that knows that water is not BLUE!!
NarutoxGH3 2 years ago
Take a look at a little bottle of yellow food coloring. It's dark red-orange. That dye is only yellow in small diluted quantities.
Water is like a dye, and it behaves in a similar way: it's turquoise (blue-green) in shallow layers a few feet thick. Thicker layers are bright blue, and very deep water is blue-black. Find some aerial photos of Caribbean white beaches, with various depths of water having various blue colors.
wbeaty 2 years ago
nah, its because the colour in the sky reflects off the water, so looking at a careabean beach, the deeper the water, the less white sand u wil be able to see, so therefore reflecting a darker shade of blue.
freakinSWEET88 2 years ago
> nah, it's because the colour in the sky reflects off the water.
First, WATCH THE VIDEO. The sky is overcast gray, yet the water is brightly colored.
Second, the entire scientific community disagrees with you. Sky reflections only give color to the water's bright reflections, not to the water itself. Example: a red car looks red, but it's glancing reflections are blue like the sky.
wbeaty 2 years ago
Thanks for the video and the link to London South Bank University and the paper on Water Absorption Spectrum. I now understand it much more.
Artealee 2 years ago
Look how frothy that water is. Oooh.
WaterOnDaBrain 2 years ago 2
So, Sorry If I've Missed Something, Is A Glass Of Water Only Clear Because It's Not Got The Minerals Or Particles That Makes The Sea Blue, Or Is It Just That There Simply Isn't A Big Enough Volume Of Water In the Glass For It To Look Blue?
Moustachio101 2 years ago
Water acts like very dilute blue dye. To see the slightest tinge of color, the water needs to be thicker than about half a meter. You'd never see it in a glass of water or a bathtub. Probably the water in a white-painted hot tub would look slightly blue-green.
wbeaty 2 years ago
Ah, Right.
Thanks For Explaining That.
Btw I've been watching alot of your videos, you've taught me more about science than i ever learned when i was at school xD
Moustachio101 2 years ago 2
ya the deapest u go the darkest the water but thats bcoz theres no light so technicaly water exepts the color depending on what it works on it so technicaly we could find the real color of the water-in a plase where there is no other colot inclooding black -=>means the water is shear color (that kinda kolor doesent exist,onely the efect does so) damn i got comfused
ryuzakilawlight 2 years ago
Find some white-painted indoor swimming pools on youtube. (Indoor, so no blue sky above.) There are hundreds of vids. Try the SETT, or "deepest swimming pool." The water in shallow pools is bright turquoise color. The deep end is blue.
wbeaty 2 years ago
according to satellite photos of the earth..
the ocean is blue
Giraffepotamus 2 years ago
perhaps i'm out of my league here, but it seems i read the color of water is attributed to the minerals present in that water. and, the colors change as different oceans embody different minerals.
hamdelsun 2 years ago
Read the physics papers instead (see the links.) With a white sand bottom, extremely pure fresh water appears just as blue as ocean water.
H2O molecules absorb the red end of the spectrum, or in other words, water is the same as a very weak blue dye. To clearly see its color, you need a white background, and a layer of water a couple meters thick.
wbeaty 2 years ago
what if i am daltonic? i have never seen the "blue" ocean blue, but i do see the "transparent" water in a glass of water, transparent!
laresbernardo 2 years ago
how come swimming pools water is blue then?
JonBiggE 2 years ago
drop camera! =D
More electronic/dry ice experiments
readthiscomment 2 years ago
water is clear. go to the ocean and get a bucket of water and look at it. it might look blue but its really not. mainly looks blue due to the reflection of the sky.
highonmtndew 2 years ago
> blue due to the reflection of the sky.
Yep, that's the misconception.
Missed the above video, eh? Where the sky is overcast gray, yet water is blue?
Click on the science links to learn the truth.
Glass looks clear until you see a thick block of it (or look into the edge of plate glass.) Water looks clear until you see a 30ft icecube... or notice a white-painted indoor swimming pool that's blue when filled.
wbeaty 2 years ago
i didn't know that!!! cool!! thx for making this vid!
guitarwand492075322 2 years ago
So is freshwater clear?
oisiaa 2 years ago
nope, blue. Find pictures of Crater Lake.
wbeaty 2 years ago
lucb1e, realy, if we had better eyes, nothing would be transparent. transpareny comes from letting all the rays of radiation through it. but VERY few still stop at it right? yet we cant see them. think of a brick. if all the rays of light went through it, we couldnt see the color right? so on water, its just like that. we cant REALY see it. the light is reflected off of it, we cant see it. it dosnt meen there is no color because we cant prove it with our eyes.
datlildodge 2 years ago
why are there actually arguments? some people are being really arrogant. if you use spectroscopy techniques on water, you will find it is blue.
gaviniscool 2 years ago
> why are there actually arguments?
Most people learned this misconception from their grade-school textbooks.
If they ever looked at the situation honestly, and admitted that their books got ONE thing wrong ...then it opens the door to the appalling notion that their textbooks got MANY things wrong.
They'd rather reject the accurate blue-water explanation, than accept the possibility that their grade-school science knowledge might be full of mistakes.
wbeaty 2 years ago
water dont have a colour alright u seen 1 then but thats because the water was going fast??
daisy15696 2 years ago
> then but thats because the water was going fast??
Speed creates color?
The blue color of water is very weak, so in a glass of water, you can't see it.
But in a white-painted swimming pool, you can see the blue.
Or in deep water, if you make lots of white bubbles, you can see the blue color against the white.
wbeaty 2 years ago
i was tought that it's color comes from the reflection of the sky.
missemsnitchesss 2 years ago
Allright u win, but I mean if you got water in a glass or something it just has no (or not a visible) color.
lucb1e 2 years ago
"Whenever someone makes a strong statement then says "period," it always means that they have no arguments to back up their position."
never say always, there always can be an exeption ;)
because: my argument is that water just appears to have a color. The particles between the water molecules have a color, or water reflects the color of something above it. But water itself hasn't really got a color.
lucb1e 2 years ago
Your "argument" still boils down to a statement. "Pure water is colorless."
To sway anyone, you'll need to debunk the chemist at Dartmouth University who shows that ultra-pure water is blue, gives the absorption vs. wavelength, and provides a photograph of it. And debunk the London U. physicist who goes into much greater detail. Then attack the research papers they cite as reference.
Preserving your mistake about water is easy: just refuse to click on "(more info)" or follow those links.
wbeaty 2 years ago
Water is transparent, no color. Period.
lucb1e 2 years ago
Whenever someone makes a strong statement then says "period," it always means that they have no arguments to back up their position. (If they did, they'd present arguments instead of saying "period.")
To read some physics and chemistry articles about the details of water's blue color, just click on the caption to the right (it says "more info.") There is one from Dartmoth university, from U. of london, and on Wikipedia there are links to others.
wbeaty 2 years ago
well isnt liquid hydrogen pale blue
FreakShowpb 2 years ago
And yet I still wonder... what is the color of water?
USA4FREEDOM 2 years ago
Don't trust chemistry websites which say that it's blue. Don't trust physics papers which analyze the details of the source of it's blue color. Don't trust your eyes when you see thousands of photos of troptical blue shallow water in front of a background of white sand.
Go buy a package of food colors. Look at the yellow bottle. It's dark orange!! Yet in shallow layers or much dilution it's yellow. And put a drop into a swimming pool ...and the color is far to weak to see.
wbeaty 2 years ago
yeah i knew that along with liaotang. a prpfesser told me it one day.
butchakid 2 years ago
Pay attention: the "obvious" explanation falls apart if your video is made on a cloudy day. No blue sky. The shiny reflections on the waves are certainly as grey as the sky, yet we still see blues and turquoise where the white bubbles are a few meters deep.
His Right all so its blue becouse its deep and the sun light cant reach to the end of the botom its dark and it looks blue and wbeaty is right its turkiz
zotabor 2 years ago 2
This comment has received too many negative votes show
water: no colour: transparent
sea: reflects sky
sea + shallow (sand) = turqouise
sea alone = dark blue..
im 13 and i thought that was obvious...
LiMaoTang 2 years ago
actually thats not totally true
Water is a little bit blue
If you freeze destilled water (pristine clear ice) crush it etc etc you can messure reflected light in the blue spectrum
Water is indeed blue (But you cant see it with the human eye)
RazielKain 2 years ago
> sea + shallow (sand) = turqouise
Shallow sea with white sand is turquoise even on cloudy days. And a long pipe filled with pure water appears blue when you look through it. Why? Physicists say it's simple: water is a blue-colored chemical ...but the light-absorption is small, so it only becomes visible when looking through several meters of water.
Try clicking on some of the links to the websites about H2O absorption spectrum.
wbeaty 2 years ago
> im 13 and i thought that was obvious...
Pay attention: the "obvious" explanation falls apart if your video is made on a cloudy day. No blue sky. The shiny reflections on the waves are certainly as grey as the sky, yet we still see blues and turquoise where the white bubbles are a few meters deep.
wbeaty 2 years ago
I think it would be interesting to see if there is any significant color change of heavy water at different depths.
gusu666 2 years ago
Hi...please don't mind my question. What about the people who are saying that water has "NO COLOR" ?
tunparty 2 years ago
> What about the people
Which people?
Physics and chemistry researchers have measured the color of water. Go look at the links to the various articles.
wbeaty 2 years ago
oh and another ps. it is Blue to You. color perception is a relative thing. Like if a color blind person sees water and it is not blue, then it would be rather inaccurate to call it blue wouldn't it. Considering that your eyes, and human eyes altogether, are a minority in this world, then water may not actually be blue.
CakesPix 2 years ago
Good philosophical point - but color is not completely a matter of opinion.
It has an absolute quality in its composition of wavelengths, and even a color blind person can measure these wavelengths to find the "color". That how we measure IR and UV light... no one can actually see them, but everyone can differentiate between them.
nagrajan777 2 years ago 3
> color perception is a relative thing.
That's a type of fallacy, a valid point which masks an attempt to sow confusion. Yes, ALL COLOR has a psychological component. But when someone mentions green grass or red apples, do you always start a big philosophical debate and try to disprove the existence of color? I bet not.
Water is blue for the same basic reasons that chlorophyll is green: you're looking at a chemical which absorbs certain frequencies in the visible spectrum.
wbeaty 2 years ago
ps, if something has color, it is Not transparent.
CakesPix 2 years ago
> ps, if something has color, it is Not transparent.
Like cherry soda? It's red, so it has to be opaque? Not quite.
wbeaty 2 years ago
Cherry soda is translucent, but not necessarily transparent.
douchebarge 2 years ago
> Cherry soda is translucent
Cherry soda is transparent, but not necessarily translucent! (See, I can make stuff up out of thin air too. Never actually *look* at a particular brand of soda.)
But this is an exercise for people more argumentative than honest.
Go get a glass of water. Put a couple of drops of food color in it. It turns colored, yet remains transparent.
wbeaty 2 years ago
Have I misunderstood the meaning of "translucent" vs. "transparent"?
Yes, it turns out I have, after a quick Web search. I'm sorry I didn't do this search before commenting.
It turns out that this is an exercise for people more ignorant than honest. I apologize for my lack of due diligence.
Thanks for all you do.
douchebarge 2 years ago
Out of curiosity, since I legitimately don't know, could water really be considered transparent? In smaller samples, it's obvious that it is. Go a bit deeper, and it will be more translucent than anything. Deeper yet, and no light will get through it at all. I feel like I'm not making sense here, and I'm probably not. It's been a while since I've taken a science class. =(
namtap 2 years ago
Sure, since "transparent" verus "opaque" is a matter of thickness. You can see the sun through very thin metal or a think coating of ink, but it's totally opaque when thick.
Water's opaque for many hundreds of feet of thickness, that's why it's so black down deep.
wbeaty 2 years ago
What if humans were 500ft tall rather than 5ft? Then we'd *know* that water was blue. For us a cup of water would be 30ft thick and appear bright blue. A bathtub would be 100ft deep, and colored too blue/black to even see the bottom.
If we were 50,000ft tall, then water in an eyedropper might look as black as ink, and a tiny droplet of water would be 50ft across and appear deep blue.
wbeaty 2 years ago
the cup of water that big would only appear blue if u where outside and the sky was blue, otherwise it be clear :)
boen747 2 years ago
You missed the point: the sky in this video is gray and overcast. But the water stays blue. Why? Because water has always been blue, all by itself, and the sky is not needed. Scientists know this, but the general public does not. Click on the links to various articles.
wbeaty 2 years ago
damn dude.. my physics AND chemistry teachers would love you lol
JonBiggE 2 years ago
could be a silly comment.. but uhhh what if you just brought a glass of water to the beach? lol
JustBecauz 2 years ago
Two words: Raman Effect.
yt2vinay 3 years ago
> Raman Effect
Not quite. Water's strong blue color is caused by absorption. But yes, there must also be a bit of scattering (algae, Raman,) otherwise the blue light would never bounce back upwards.
wbeaty 3 years ago
I found this:
"Why is the sea blue?" yields new analytical tool
The discovery that earned C. V. Raman the 1930 Nobel Prize in physics was born of an investigation of light sparked by a question a child might ask. Returning to his native India by way of the Mediterranean Sea, Raman wondered at the sea's deep blue color. Dissatisfied with the prevailing explanation— that it reflected the sky— he delved further and demonstrated a universal truth.
Google it for the url.
yt2vinay 3 years ago
Oh, just so that you find the right url, the link is from the American Chemical Society.
yt2vinay 3 years ago
And even if the strong blue light is by absorption, technically it wouldn't need algae or anything else to cause scattering, for the blue to be visible- the immersed bubbles that bounce off the white coloured light is like a background to the water ahead of it.
yt2vinay 3 years ago
hey i just wanted to say thank you. i had nobody to make fun of and now i do,
JOSH36DW 3 years ago
> the appearance of colour in water comes not from H2O itself but from the impurities
Confident statements are worthless if not backed up by actual evidence.
If you believe that the absorption spectrum of pure water is flat, you're simply wrong. Pure water is blue. A good collection of links to physics articles is on wikipedia under "color of water." Try U. of LSB, tinyurl com/6de9fl which explains the details. Or the popular article about it, "Color from Vibrations," tinyurl com/8zv232
wbeaty 3 years ago
"simply wrong". LOL. some scientist you are. stuff that is right yesterday is wrong today no matter how much prooof you have. if YOU don't know that then you are a newb.
CakesPix 2 years ago
This is as daft as saying 'air is blue because the sky is blue'.
montmerency2 3 years ago
> This is as daft as saying 'air is blue because the sky is blue'.
Most people have no idea why oceans are blue. They'll say that the blue comes from sky reflections. The smarter ones think it's blue because of Tyndall effect: because H2O molecules scatter light. Both answers are wrong because both assume that water itself is colorless.
Major clue: as with any colored liquid, the absorption spectrum of liquid H2O is not flat. Also, liquid H2O looks blue, while liquid D2O does not.
wbeaty 3 years ago
That's interesting, I didn't know D2O wasn't blue like 'regular' water. I must look that up.
ReverendFlatus 2 years ago
What Color is Automatic transmission fluid? Red.Now look at 500 gals of it in a tank.Its no longer Red its more black.Its what all Fluids do with wavelengths of light.
Darkfoster22 3 years ago
Of course there is less light in your tank, put a light in it and your fluid will be red again
43932 3 years ago
Pure H2O is tasteless and Colorless.
Sea,Drinking,tap eta. Has alot of minerals that gives water the color.There is not ture color for water.
Darkfoster22 3 years ago
> minerals that gives water the color
Back in the 1800s, scientists thought that the color of water came from scattering.
Then they found that ultra-pure water was still blue.
Today molecular vibration theory describes the blue color of water correctly. It really is a blue-colored chemical (well, it's turquoise-colored at shallower depths.)
Don't believe youtube comments. Don't believe ME. The briefest search on "color of water" finds univerity physics pages that tell the real story.
wbeaty 3 years ago
did u just get that off of wikepedia or something? lolz
radrox895 3 years ago
Depends upon how thick the water is.
It starts off transparent with abilities of absorbing and scattering light, then the density gets higher and then it's opaque.
faro0485 3 years ago
The reason the water looks blue is because the deeper you go, the more colors in the spectrum are filtered out. Red is the first to go, whereas blue is the last visible color before total darkness. They teach that in Open Water Scuba classes.
I would imagine the water would have some coloration due to the salt & other minerals, but since the red was filtered almost immediately, it gave the illusion of turquoise. That's why deeper it appeared to be blue, because the green was being filtered.
DrkRonin03 3 years ago
The main reason the ocean is blue is because water itself is a blue-colored chemical. Optical scattering from water molecules provides a second source of the blue color, but colored light caused by scattering only becomes significant with extremely pure water. According to the frequency spectra for pure liquid water, a short water column has a very light shade of turquoise blue. Thicker layers appear much darker blue. Only when collected in a large body, water's blue color becomes apparent.
javonpryce 3 years ago
Red has the lowest wavelenght, so it passes more matter. Blue is shortest and it doesn't go very far. Check few space images and notice that they are reddish, thats how they calculate matter in the nebulas etc. I think your scuba teacher had a science misconseption there.
rabieschu 3 years ago