What color is water?
Filming on a gray overcast day. I debunk the common misconception that water’s blue color comes from the reflected sky. The distant ocean here looks DARK BLUE with gray reflections, yet the sky is gray. The visible reflections are gray, yet this doesn’t stop the water looking blue. Where white bubbles are mixed in, we see many shades of blue-green and blue. With a gray sky? In fact, water is a genuinely blue chemical, although thin layers do appear colorless. Water is very strongly colored in the infrared band, and the tails of the IR absorption curves spread into the visible spectrum, making water colored. As with window glass, if we look through a layer many feet thick, we’ll discover its true color. To see the real color of any transparent substance, just hold a thick layer of that substance in front of a white background such as white beach sand or a white-bottom swimming pool. Here the white background is the white foam kicked up by the ship’s props. For the science behind water’s blue color, see: www.lsbu.ac.uk www.dartmouth.edu en.wikipedia.org www.webexhibits.org Note: Trolls & spammers blocked immediately. Zero tolerance.
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Posted: September 6th, 2010 under Strange Things In Swimming Pools.
Tags: amasci, color, demo, demonstration, h2o, ocean, optics, physics, reflection, Science, water
Comments
Comment from coolwannabe123
Time November 4, 2009 at 22:33
That aye true
Comment from coolwannabe123
Time November 4, 2009 at 22:36
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.
Comment from Scorpac
Time November 5, 2009 at 08:06
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….
Comment from wbeaty
Time November 5, 2009 at 09:29
> 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.
Comment from wbeaty
Time November 5, 2009 at 09:35
> 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.
Comment from TheUFOeffect
Time November 29, 2009 at 08:58
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.
Comment from wbeaty
Time November 29, 2009 at 09:33
> 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.
Comment from TheUFOeffect
Time November 29, 2009 at 22:45
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.
Comment from wbeaty
Time November 30, 2009 at 00:47
> 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.)
Comment from itsjustutube1
Time December 1, 2009 at 00:34
water is blue
Comment from metallicabillxxx
Time December 22, 2009 at 22:11
Water has no color
Comment from wbeaty
Time December 22, 2009 at 22:46
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.
Comment from onionofdeath
Time December 26, 2009 at 09:52
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.
Comment from joyting
Time December 27, 2009 at 17:17
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.
Comment from XavierNinnis
Time January 7, 2010 at 01:33
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.
Comment from wbeaty
Time January 7, 2010 at 04:51
> 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.
Comment from wbeaty
Time January 7, 2010 at 04:52
> 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
Comment from dimoschka
Time January 7, 2010 at 12:24
what a beatiful colour…you just gotta love it 
Comment from DeltaPhi79
Time January 31, 2010 at 08:41
Hm…. What about freshwater and tap water?
Comment from wbeaty
Time February 1, 2010 at 07:09
> 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.
Comment from TheScienceTestTV
Time July 10, 2010 at 08:39
water is a bit blue kinda substance.
WhY? Because it has oxygen in it and oxygen is a blue gas
Comment from TyKexBK
Time August 10, 2010 at 21:47
If you bottled that water, and brought it inside, would it be blue any longer?
Comment from jonnyfilmboy
Time August 14, 2010 at 22:55
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.
Comment from TheAteston
Time August 24, 2010 at 14:18
totaly clear water i colourles this coloring comes from dirt or minerals !
Comment from psyscleuno
Time October 22, 2009 at 01:28
thats awesome..