Why is snow white and water clear?

Question

Surely they should be the same colour since both are made of water? I'd never really thought about it until the other day when it snowed lol.

Answer 1

Awesome question

Answer 2

Snow ,being solid form of water are closely packed and does not allow the light to travel through it and instead scatters the white light.So it looks white.On the other hand, water,being a liquid allows the sunlight to pass through it and no scattering occurs.Hence it is clear.

Answer 3

Snow is just crystals of frozen water and reflects white light which is what we see. Water is transparent so we see through it and it appears colourless.

Answer 4

snow is like frost. frost is white. ice is sometimes clear depending on frost.

Answer 5

because since snow is water in a solid state, its atoms are more closely attatched and firm so they appear as white since you cannot see through them...water is of course in liquid state so the atoms are more loose (i guess you say) and move around more freely so they come off as clear and one can see through them...this is as best i can explain this at such short notice...sorry and i hope this makes sense

Answer 6

i have no idea. look it up on wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Answer 7

snow is white because of its rigid and smooth crystal like structure, it causes light to be reflected -- namely white light which is made up of pretty much every color.    

heat expands atoms, cold contracts atoms.  ice is still water, it is just atomically compacted water.  it is clear because the structure is smooth and the atoms of water are aligned in a uniform manner.  of course the air bubbles in ice can disrupt this and make certain areas not clear.  water in liquid form doesn't look like any of this because it can't form into any specific solid structures.  

molten lava is red, yet the rock/metals it is made up of, can be a number of different colors in their natural state.

Answer 8

Ice crystals form around a nucleus (usually dust), and it's the crystalline structure that gives the frozen H2O the appearance of being white..like a prism.

Answer 9

The colder water gets the more dense it gets so light reflects at different rate when it hits it making it look white. Some times in the right conditions it will look blue.

Answer 10

Because snow has a very fragmented structure. Light is scattered in all directions.

Water with a smooth surface looks clear because there is minimal scattering of light from the surface, just as a solid block of pure ice looks clear. Try scraping the surface of the ice and you'll end up with something that looks just like snow, for the same reason.

Answer 11

the same reason why ice floats. all the air bubbles in it. bubbly bubbly.

water molecules are actually purple, but we dont really see that. the ocean reflects the sky and "clear" water is very very very faded purple. very!