Friday, October 5, 2007

A quesiton...

Why in an indoor (paster wall) pool with a white paint job, does the water still look blue?

My maintenance man asked me that question Friday, "You're a triathlete, let me ask you..."

I responded, "I'm a triathlete not a pointed headed, smart guy scientist. But I will ask some friends that are big book readers."

So I poise the question to all of you. Is it the way the lighting reflects off water molecules, like why the sky is blue. I suppose that even in aerial photography of oceans water is blue even though you can't see the bottom.

Inquiring minds want to know...

9 comments:

Ironayla said...

So I googled "why does the ocean look blue" and found the following response... (I was interested to know as well).

"Actually, all colors of light enter the water and the yellow and red light is absorbed in the upper part of the water and only the green and blue spectrum of light remains to be seen by the eye. The ocean is blue because it does not contain particulate matter to change it to another color. Coastal oceans are grren because of the microalgae(phyto-plankton) and because of organic conpunds like those that leak out of soil that are yellow. If you dive under the water and look around, you will seee that everything looks blue because no yellow or red light can penetrate that deep and be reflected from objects and thus seen by the eye."

Bolder said...

because i like it that way.

that is all.

carry on.

SingletrackJenny (formerly known as IronJenny) said...

dang - I was just going to write what Ironayla wrote... ;-)
Comm - I'm a housewife, not a big book reader!!!

Taconite Boy said...

Tac's a tri superhero. With his other-worldy knowledge his answer is...

He has no freaking idea.

Athena Misty, aka "GeekGirl" said...

I would also add that if there are chemicals in the water, that will change things. Some municipalities put chlorine in water, which occasionally gives it a greenish tinge. Who knows what else?

Brent Buckner said...

The sky is blue due to Rayleigh scattering.

Hence, ocean blue and sky blue have primary different causes (although Rayleigh scattering is also a factor under water).

Iron Pol said...

Apparently, I don't have enough time on my hands.

Fumo Santo said...

Yep, what Leyla said...

Now can anyone tell me why the sky goes green before a tornado? I've always wondered that...

the Dread Pirate Rackham said...

blah blah blah, light absorbtion, wavelength, particle scattering, blah.

Etc.

(back in the day when I went to pirate-engineer school, I used to know. I'm glad someone smart filled in the other words. )