Why does swimming pools and the ocean look blue?

Question

when water is clear?

Answer 1

Although water is clear all things, even air reflects portions of the light spectrum.

A ray of light consists of several different colors of light all traveling at different wavelengths. Some are visible and some invisible like UV rays.  When you pass light through a prism you can see the rainbow of colors that appear due to the refraction properties of the glass prism which separates the colors of light according to its wavelength.

Water not only can separate the colors like glass as in a rainbow but it can also absorb light.  The colors all absorb at different depths due to wavelength.

In a pool the refraction properties of the water will only refract the blue light because the blue wavelength has the greatest degree penetration thereby reflecting the color blue as the dominant wavelength in the water.

Answer 2

Isnt it a reflection of the sky?

Answer 3

The water scatters blue light back to your eyes, while red and yellow light goes straight through, never reaching your eyes (not counting reflection).

This is the same reason that the sky is blue and the sun is slightly yellowish.

Answer 4

Check out

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_of_wa...

Water is slightly blue because of how it scatters and absorbs light. In a small amount of water the effect is too faint to detect, but in a deep pool or the ocean we can see this effect.

It is also true that a small amount of the blueness of the ocean is reflection of the sky.

Answer 5

the light

Answer 6

large bodies of water traditionally vote democratic

Answer 7

Only 4% of the light from the blue sky is reflected from the surface of the sea. The rest of the light goes into the deep water of the sea and is absorbed. Light from the bottom of the sea is absorbed and doesn't reach the surface and so is black. You see the blue reflected from the surface because you cannot see the bottom. The water in the sea is not colored blue - the surface acts as a mirror to reflect the sky.

A swimming pool is blue because the bottom of the pool is usually painted blue.