Scientists have explained the whiteness of the snow. Free Technical Library News

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Scientists have explained the whiteness of the snow

01.01.2019

French meteorologists answered questions about why the snow is white and the frozen water is clear.

In this regard, the experts recalled that the transformation of water or water suspension into snowflakes of various shapes is far from a simple process. In most cases, it begins with the fact that water is attracted to the smallest solid particles, which can be a hundredth of a millimeter in diameter. That is, initially it occurs in conditions of far from ideal air purity.

It is around the microparticle that the initial hexagonal prism is formed - with six lateral rectangular faces. Crystals continue to grow, but their further shape depends on the conditions in which they find themselves - on atmospheric pressure, the electric field of the cloud, wind, humidity and temperature. Moreover, the ambient temperature is the most important - it decides whether the upper or lower prism, or their side faces, will develop and change.

So, temperatures of minus 5 - 10 degrees Celsius lead to the formation of snowflakes in the form of needles or tiny thin columns. At temperatures of 10 - 12 degrees, snowflakes form in the form of plates or flakes. And only at minus 12 - 18 degrees are the most beautiful - in the form of "stars" with six rays. At the same time, each snowflake has its own characteristics and is unique, as it is formed from water crystals of various shapes and numbers. During their formation, snowflakes increase in size from half a millimeter to several millimeters.

The white color of snow is caused precisely by its structure. In ice, all crystals are strictly aligned and oriented. Light, therefore, passes through ice with only a slight change in direction. Snow, on the other hand, has ice crystals arranged randomly. As a result, light falling on one of them, in a refracted form, falls on the other, which again changes its direction. Moreover, snowflakes are even capable of decomposing white light into color spectral components - but as a result, all this gives exactly white color.

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