Pour a glass of water from the tap, or scoop it up out of the ocean and it looks clear… but pure water actually has a slight blue colour, almost a turquiose colour. And when you look out at a lake or at the ocean, all that water together will also look blue.
Why is that? Light is made up of all the colours of the rainbow put together. The colour of the things around us is caused by how well they absorb and reflect the different slices of the rainbow that make up light.
Water is good at absorbing the red parts of light, and it reflects the blue parts of light, so it looks blue.
Pour a glass of water from the tap, or scoop it up out of the ocean and it looks clear… but pure water actually has a slight blue colour, almost a turquiose colour. And when you look out at a lake or at the ocean, all that water together will also look blue.
Why is that? Light is made up of all the colours of the rainbow put together. The colour of the things around us is caused by how well they absorb and reflect the different slices of the rainbow that make up light.
Water is good at absorbing the red parts of light, and it reflects the blue parts of light, so it looks blue.
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