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Why is snow white?


Why is snow white?
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by Mya Kagan (whyzz writer) >> more about the author

Why is snow white?
 
Have you ever noticed that snow is white until it melts? Melted snow, which is water, is usually clear or light blue! So if snow melts into clear water, why is it white when it’s still made up of cold snowflakes?     

Just like other things get their color because of the way light works, so does snow! When light (such as light from the sun) shines onto Earth, it shines a huge spectrum of energies that our eyes interpret as different colors. Light’s energies shine onto every object they touch and when something appears to be a certain color, like an orange carrot, it means that the object has taken in (absorbed) all of the other energies and bounced back at you (reflected) the energies that appear orange to your eyes!

Snow follows the exact same rules as other objects, but due to the special way it’s made up of tiny delicate ice crystals, it reacts a little differently when the light hits it. When a beam of light touches snow, it is quickly scattered off in many different directions by the ice crystals! All of the different light energies that could be interpreted by your eyes as different colors are scattered equally by the ice crystals, which leaves the snow absorbing and reflecting the energies of almost no colors – and so it looks white!




Although snow scatters the different energies of light almost equally, it does sometimes reflect a little bit of blue light. It’s very rare to see blue snow, but it usually shows up in pockets contained within very deep banks of snow. – Neat!!






Exploring the snow!

Next time it’s cold and snowy, ask a grown-up if you can go outside and gather up some snow for an experiment!

Leave the snow in a clear glass or bowl on a tabletop somewhere inside. Watch the snow as it melts – the melted water that comes from your snow is clear and not milky white! 

Can you think of why this happens? – It’s because when ice crystals stick together as snow, it’s the special way each crystal is shaped and holding on to the others that they scatter light and look white. But, when they melt into a puddle of water, they’re no longer holding on the same way and they look clear or very light blue, instead!