If water's transparent, how come we can see rain?

Question

If water's transparent, how come we can see rain?

Answer 1

Still water is transparent - moving water is not.

That is why we can see the rain, it is moving.

Answer 2

it contrasts with the sky and other things we look at..

Answer 3

Well, look at it this way:

you can see through glass right? you can still see it.

same with seranwrap. just because it's transparent doesn't mean you can't see it.

Answer 4

Is this a serious question because if it I cannot give you the science of it.  I do think though that water is transparent but it is reflective...it doesn't have a color like the ocean it's blue because of the reflection from the sky.  So rain picks up "color" when falling, relfects whats around it making it visible.

Answer 5

when the light passes through the rain drop .. it gets bent.. so ya see the rain drop even though its see through, so when u look at th rain drop.. u see it .. coz the light passing through it is all messed up :)

Answer 6

It's little dots of water. Also, we could see water, so that means that water is not transparent so the we could see through it without noticing it.

Answer 7

Light passing through the rain drop refracts (bends)visible light bends and reflects as it passes from one medium e.g. air to another e.g.water this change in medium and bending causes the rain to be visible, another example to show how light refracts: put a straw in a glass of water ,the light bends making the straw look like its split

Answer 8

For the same reason you can see the water in the ocean or water in a lake.

Answer 9

Water's surface is reflective. We see the reflected light.

Answer 10

the rain is only visible against a different shade of background.....

Answer 11

Water is transparent -- but only if you look at the surface close to straight-on, or about within 45 degrees from straight-on.  Rain drops are more or less  round, so only the center 1/3 is transparent.  But even that only lets you look *into* the drop, its another 1/3 transparent on the other side.  Since 1/3 times 1/3 = 1/9, rain drops are only 1/9 transparent.

Answer 12

transparency meaning rays of light travel through a susbstance so that bodies situating beyond or behind can be distinctly seen

rain is crystal clear and we can see crystals

its pretty much see through for example glass plastic

thats why we can see the rain and still be able to see whats in front of our face or in a distance

Answer 13

There is little particles that make it a little dark

Answer 14

Transparent does not mean 'invisible'.  Water is transparent and so to is rain, therefore we can see through both.

Light refraction in water . . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2drGDJ5Bu...

Answer 15

Plus it reflects. Just as you can see reflections when you look in a pond, light is reflecting off the droplets making them easier to see.

Answer 16

Its because the refractive index of water is different than air

Answer 17

Water reftacts light by bending it like a prism, which is different than reflecting it.  If you looked at a rain drop you would see the sky behind the rain drop, but it would be bent so there would be light bands where the light is bleached out and dark bands where the color's emphasized.  It's the same affect that causes rainbows.

Take a look!

http://www.pbase.com/accl/waterdrop

Answer 18

Its the waters skin

Answer 19

The TV weather forecasters can't.