Name: Niluh Indria Wardani

NIM : H311 15 319

What color is water?

What color is water? It is a question that many children ask, not to mention adults, and
the answer is invariably that it has no color. It is transparent, clear, see through. Is that answer
the correct one?

Take a look at that lovely cool wine glass of water above. Looks refreshing and thirst
quenching, yes? No? Let me take a look. Oh dear! Well, disregard the goldfish if you can but
the water is colorless, right? Wrong. The water does have color but it is not something that
the human eye can see when H2O is present in such small quantities.

I
In order to see the real color of water we must take a look at a large body. By large
body, we do not mean Arnold Schwarzenegger, but a place where a great volume of water
can be looked through or down into. It can be done scientifically as well, but the human eye
can see the intrinsic color of water in the right conditions. You may well have already
guessed what that color may be.
 Well yes, okay. It is blue, light blue some would even argue turquoise. Now before
you close this page, spare a second to think about why you thought that. Is it because you
think that it is due to the reflection of the sky on the surface of a large body of water, such as
the sea? So, when the day is overcast and cloudy, how is it that the sea then appears to be the
same color or perhaps an even darker blue than on bright, cloudless sunny days? True, the
reflection of light does contribute to the color that the water looks, but only when the surface
of the water is very still. The picture below, taken at Los Cabos, Mexico shows the sea at its
stillest and most serene and as such its bluest. The red you can see is pure reflection,
however, not the color of water at all.

The amount of this color caused by reflection is due mostly to the angle at which you
look at it, which in scientific terms is known as the angle of incidence. Put simply it is how
many degrees away from looking at water straight on that you are. The higher the angle, the
bluer the water will appear due to reflection. This is because the reflectivity of the water is
higher in direct correspondence of the angle of incidence. Water can quickly become totally
reflective under these conditions.

Of course, what is in the water plays a very important role in the color we perceive it to
be. These salt ponds in the US are full of algae. Pink algae. It is not, as legend has it, that the
water has such a low PH that when flamingoes attempted to land there that they were
effectively melted. It is due to the presence in very large quantities of the microalgae
Dunaliella salina. So, what more proof can there be that what is in the water often
predetermines the color that we see?
 Algae is usually associated with the color of green and that of course will change the
color of the water. It can also be done by human hand, of course. The denizens of Chicago
often turn the color of their river green on Saint Patricks Day. Quite what it does to the fish
in there if indeed there are any is anyones guess.

The magnificence of the deep blue of the sea off Montserrat (picture above). .A lot of
the color you see comes from the depth of the water, not the sunlight cascading down upon it.
White sunlight contains all the colors in the spectrum. Water gives absorbing all these colors
a good go but some of them are absorbed more than others. It is only, in addition, any good at
doing this if it has a lot of company. In other words, cup sea water in your hands and it
appears clear, throw it back in the sea and it joins the rest of the countless H2O molecules in
there to become blue.

The seas water can absorb red light very well, and so the sea is not red. However, the
water does not absorb blue light very well and so this light is transmitted through the water.
As it is not absorbed, you perceive the water to be blue. Yes, it is absolutely the same
principle as to why the sky is blue as well. We can be blinded by science as well as the
sights!
 The ferries coming in to the Maldives (above) are dwarfed by the sea and its
magnificent multi-coloring. If you have ever been in a swimming pool which has had its sides
and bottom white washed you will have noticed that the water appears turquoise. This is even
inside when there is no light to be reflected. So it is in the outside world the true color of
water is best seen from above. This beautiful shot from Minorca, below, illustrates this
wonderfully.

In terms of the visible spectrum, red and blue are complementary colors. So it is the
blue that we see as we observe light passing through water to greater depths. The lower we
go, the bluer it seems to get. When flashlights are used by divers then the real colors emerge
but anything at a distance of more than a few feet appears blue even though it isnt really.

This color can be seen in deep snow and ice as the color scatters back. Likewise when a
waterfall is frozen you can often perceive the water to be almost of a bluegreen hue as these
colors are scattered back because of the deep penetration of light.

The color that we perceive can also be governed by what is in the water itself. Have
you ever gazed at the sea, musing on lifes imponderables (that sounds like an oxymoron)?
You may well have noticed that different parts of the sea are or seem to be different
colors. This lovely shot from the Maldives clearly shows the sea as different colors. It can be
caused by the presence of clouds and their associated shadow, but often it seems not to be the
case (especially, of course on cloudless days). This happens because of what is actually in the
sea and has nothing to do with what is above it. The picture of Liguria, in Italy, pictured
below, perfectly shows the different hues of the sea.
 Oceans and lakes usually contain a lot of particles suspended in the water. These are a
combination of dirt and dead plants and animals. Living animals, too, because of their size
can change the way we perceive the color of a body of water. As the water fails to absorb a
lot of blue light, it hits these elements in the water and the blue light is reflected right back
upwards. Tropical water and, say, the waters of the Atlantic look different to each other
because in the tropics the color is due to the absorption of the red light, leaving only the blue
visible to us.

The colors of the waters off Guadalupe can be seen here in this amazing wave. The
Atlantic on the other hand has a blue which is caused by the suspension of countless numbers
of plant, animal and dirt particles within it.

Why do some bodies of water appear colors other than blue? Some look black or grey
or even brown. Again, this is because of what is absorbed in the water. Muddy waters appear
muddy because of sheer science. Mud reflects more red light than blue light and so when
there is mud in water it looks brown. A lake full of peat will look black as peat absorbs
virtually all the light that hits it. On a stormy day the sea will appear a grey color and, yes,
that is partly to do with the color of the sky. It is also because the clouds filter out a great deal
of the red light from the sun before it hits the water.
 We see water in a variety of ways. It may be colored by particles, the presence of
bacteria, or by reflecting the world above its surface. Ice and snow may reveal a vivid internal
blue such as the Multnomah Falls in the Columbia Gorge in Oregon, above. Water itself has
an intrinsic blue color that is a result of its molecular structure and its behavior. The blue
bouncing back can be vividly seen here, as a pair of brace (foolhardy?) climbers venture up a
waterfall in the Banff National Park in Canada.

Of course, the waters around Banff National Park are renowned for their turquoise
color. This is due to the many particles of finely ground rock in the glacial melts. Lake
Moraine, below is known for this icy blueness which almost hurts the eyes.

If you want to have a look for yourself at the natural and intrinsic color of water, you
can do that fairly cheaply. Take a long pipe filled with purified water. So that the water
doesnt flood out when you look through it, cover each end with a transparent window. If you
look down through the first of these windows at a piece of paper lit by natural sunlight you
will see the pale blue color of water revealed.

Source: http://www.kuriositas.com/2011/07/color-of-water.html