Why is snow white. Research project on the topic: "Why snow is white". Why is snow white and not transparent?
Children always look forward to winter. Making a snowman, sledding and jumping into snowdrifts is interesting and enjoyable! After active games in the fresh air, inspiration often finds on them, and questions begin: “Why is the sun yellow and snow white”? Few people explain the reasons for these phenomena to the little “why”s. Let's answer at least one of the above questions. So why is snow white?
A short excursion into physics
The earth is surrounded by electromagnetic waves. They are everywhere, but mostly invisible to living beings. What the eye perceives is considered to be color - electromagnetic radiation, a wave that gives a color sensation. The main source of electromagnetic waves is the Sun. Its rays include all primary colors:
- red;
- yellow;
- blue;
- blue;
- green;
- orange;
- Violet.
If all the colors merge together, a white tint is formed, and the sun's rays are just white.
Every object on Earth transmits (reflects, absorbs) sunlight. There are those who fully display it, such as ice. Each individual snowflake is the same ice.
Interesting Snow Facts:
- Half of the world's inhabitants have never seen real snow, only in pictures.
- In 1949, snow fell on the Sahara for the first and last time. The snowfall continued for more than half an hour.
snow and color
Snowflakes fall on the ground randomly, and as a result, the snowball does not transmit fully electromagnetic waves (sunlight). Therefore, if you make a dent in a snowdrift in sunny weather, the snow appears green-yellow. When overcast, it looks blue. If there is a bright red sunset in the sky - pink. The surface of the snowdrift displays all the colors of the rainbow when it is clear and sunny outside.
In latitudes that are closer to the Earth's poles, the snow appears to be a rich red color. Scientists often note a similar phenomenon in the Arctic. In the United States, namely the state of California, in 1955, residents observed a green snowfall. In 1969, a black snowfall hit Switzerland. In Russia, yellow snow fell in 2015, which was written about for a long time in the media. Air masses brought with them African sandy dust, which painted the precipitation in an atypical color for them.
Interesting Snow Facts:
- There are no two identical snowflakes, each has its own separate pattern. Physicists claim that there are more such patterns than there are atoms on Earth.
- World Snow Day is celebrated annually on January 19th.
The great Charles Darwin made a note in his diary about the fact that snow comes in different colors. It is known that once the writer went on a trip, and noticed that the horses left red tracks in the snowdrifts. It was a bright sunset, so the snow seemed not white, but pink.
The concept of color is generally subjective. One sees grass as green, another sees light green, and the third sees turquoise. These phenomena are not yet fully understood.
So, the answer to the main question: “Why is snow white?” It reflects the sun's rays, which, as already mentioned, are white. But it is worth interfering with some kind of weather phenomena - clouds, a bright sunset, and these atmospheric precipitation will no longer seem of such a shade.
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About why snow is white, and not black, blue, red or some other, each of us thought at least once in our lives. Most often, the question “why is snow white” is asked by children to parents, but not even all adults know the answer to this question.
To understand why snow is of this particular color, you first need to define the concept of color in general. What is color in terms of physics?
We are surrounded by electromagnetic radiation, which is also called electromagnetic waves.. These waves are everywhere, but most of these waves are invisible to the human eye.
The visible part of electromagnetic radiation is perceived as color. From the point of view of science, any color is a wave of electromagnetic radiation that is perceived by human vision and converted into a color sensation.
The primary source of electromagnetic radiation for us is the Sun. The sun's rays, that is, waves, contain the entire spectrum of visible radiation, that is all the main seven colors- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue, purple.
Merging, the colors of the visible spectrum form white.
Some items completely absorb light waves- we see them black, other items let the sun's rays through, that is, they are transparent. It is glass, water or ice.
Have you ever read fairy tales about living and dead water? Then you will be interested to know what it really is with their help and much, much more!
Do you know what the density of sea water is and why it is easier to swim in it than in river water? Very interesting information is located, find out something new for yourself!
Most of the objects in our world absorb some of the rays, and reflect some. For example, you can take an ordinary leaf from a green tree.
What leaf green tells us that from the visible spectrum of solar radiation it reflects rays of green light, and all the rest absorbs.
An orange orange absorbs all rays except orange, a red poppy absorbs everything except red, and so on.
The following can be said about snow - it reflects all the rays of the visible spectrum, so we see it as white, that is, as the light from the Sun is for us.
Why is snow white and not transparent? ^
And some more science. Someone will ask why the snow is still white and not transparent. Snow is essentially water, only in a different state of aggregation.
Water is a liquid, ice is a solid, snow is a loose substance consisting of individual ice crystals. Water and ice are transparent.
But in fairness it should be noted that in nature there are no absolutely transparent bodies, as there are no absolutely black and absolutely white bodies. Even glass is not completely transparent.
Be that as it may, water or ice has a more or less smooth surface, which affects the passage of sunlight through them.
Passing through the thickness of smooth ice, the rays are not absorbed and practically not refracted, most of them are transmitted, and a smaller part is reflected from the surface.
Snow is very different in its properties from ice, it is loose and not smooth at all.
To study the properties of snow in more detail, it is enough to consider a snowflake. Each snowflake is unique and has its own pattern.
But what all snowflakes have in common is that they are not smooth, but consist of many faces, that is, the smallest surfaces located at an angle to each other.
The mass of snow consists of many such snowflakes that are attached to each other. Falling on a snowy surface, sunlight is repeatedly refracted and reflected from the edges of snowflakes.
After all, most of the visible solar radiation is reflected off the snow. Moreover, as already mentioned, the rays of the entire visible spectrum are reflected, so we see the snow as white.
Snow can be compared to crushed glass or diamonds. If we imagine a huge scattering of diamonds, then it will also seem to us white, sparkling.
Perhaps everyone noticed that in the bright sunlight in winter, the surface of the snow sparkles and shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow.
Now, it's the incident sunlight that refracts and breaks up into separate spectral colors. Therefore, we see multi-colored sparks on white snow.
Do you know what it equals and why it differs from the boiling point of fresh water?
What is the dew point, how important it is and how it can be calculated, read, keep the comfort in your home!
When the snow melts, a special type of water is formed - melted water. How you can get it at home, how healthy it is and how it is used, read here:
, it is very interesting!
When thinking about winter, a snow-white cover always appears in the imagination, enveloping everything around, and rarely does anyone think about why it is white.
Droplets of water in the atmosphere, at sub-zero temperatures, freeze and turn into ice, falling to the ground in the form of snow. Ice is water in a solid state, it is transparent in itself. Then why is snow white?
Snowflakes also have no color, but if you look at them through a magnifying glass, you can see that they look like crystals, resembling a regular hexagon with edges in their shape. During a snowfall, it is the edges of the snowflakes that reflect the light rays that give the snow its usual white color.
On the ground, snow cover is a cluster of snowflakes located very tightly to each other in a chaotic manner. Together they reflect light with greater force, so even at night, when the surface is not illuminated by the sun, we see snow as white. The source of light rays at night are the moon, stars, lanterns.
However, the reason for the "whiteness" of the snow cover lies not only in the ability of the faces of ice crystals to reflect the light falling on them, but also in the purity of their surface. The bottom line is that no snowflake can be perfectly transparent. In the atmosphere, water droplets mix with various particles (dust, industrial emissions and other pollutants) that are able to absorb unreflected light rays.
Why does snow glitter?
In this case, the well-known law applies: the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. Billions of microcrystals, having the shape of a regular hexagon, absorb the sun's rays, refract them, and then reflect in different directions and at different angles, like "sunbeams". Therefore, we see how snowflakes sparkle and shimmer in the sun.
Why do snowflakes crunch and creak underfoot?
Walking through the snow, you can often hear a crunch or creak under your feet. Such a sound is obtained because the crystals of snowflakes rub against each other under mechanical pressure and break. However, this phenomenon can not always be observed, but only at a certain air temperature.
The fact is that snow creaks only at temperatures from 2 to 20 degrees below zero, and in different temperature intervals, creaking and crunching are accompanied by a special sound. This is explained by the fact that in severe frost, the crystals of snowflakes become denser and stronger, and at temperatures of 0 ° C and above, the snow cover loses its strength and begins to melt.
In fact, even the break of one small snowflake is accompanied by sound. But this sound is so weak that the human hearing organs simply do not perceive it. While trillions of snowflakes are breaking, the sound becomes much stronger and a person can clearly hear the characteristic crackling of snow.
Shadrina Ekaterina
Aims and objectives of the project, information about the formation of snow and ice, experimental experiments.
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Research project on the topic: "Why is snow white." Completed by a student of the 3rd grade of the MOU "VSOSH": Shadrina Ekaterina Project manager, a primary school teacher of the MOU "VSOSH": Mironova Elena
Fluffy white snow Whirls in the air And quietly falls to the ground, lies down. And in the morning the field turned white with snow, Like a veil All dressed him.
Formulation of the problem. Winter came. It became cold outside. One morning I woke up and looked out the window. I saw that everything around: the ground, the trees, the roofs of the houses, became white. It was the first snow. I thought: “Why is snow white?”
Purpose of the project: Study and conduct experiments to answer the question "Why is snow white?"
Project objectives: To study literature that talks about snow. Prove experimentally "Why is snow white?"
Object of study: snow. Hypothesis: Let's assume that the white color of the snow is due to the reflection of light. Research methods: 1. The study of literature on the topic. 2. Observation of the object of study. 3. Conducting experiments. 4. Analysis of the results and conclusions on the study.
Introduction Snow is frozen water. What color is ice? None. It passes the entire sunbeam through itself and remains colorless. Each snowflake individually would also freely pass a ray of the sun through itself and would also be colorless, like ice. But the snowflakes fall randomly on top of each other. All together they become opaque, do not let the rays through themselves, but on the contrary, reflect them into the eyes. That's why snow looks white.
Conclusion: each snowflake is a collection of small pieces of ice; snowflakes lie differently; snowflakes reflect light in different directions.
Experience number 1. I took a transparent plastic bag. She cut it into small pieces. Each piece is a "snowflake".
I put all the pieces in a transparent glass. They positioned themselves differently.
Result: "snow" in a white glass.
Experience number 2. She poured water into a glass and put it in the freezer. The water turned into clear ice.
Mom broke the ice into small pieces. He became white.
Conclusion and Conclusion Conclusion Pieces of a plastic bag and pieces of ice are individually transparent. Light passes through them and is not reflected. When the pieces of the package and lie randomly (in different ways), they reflect light in different directions. Conclusion Snow is white because each snowflake reflects light in different directions. Scientific language - "light is scattered." This makes the snow white.
Sources of information Children's encyclopedia. "I know the world." - M .: AST Publishing House LLC, 2001.-557 p.: V. A. Markin. Photos from the home archive taken during the experiments - 2014 http://otvet.mail.ru/question/62950897 - a photograph depicting snowy trees. http://www. adobetutorialz. com / articles /2909/1/ We - wish - you - a - Merry - Christmas - illustration - template for presentation teacher of computer science Kurbanova Irina Borisovna, GOU secondary school No. 594, St. Petersburg, website: http://pedsovet.su/
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MOU "Vyoskinskaya secondary school"
Research project on the topic:
Why is snow white?
Completed by a student
3rd grade
MOU "VSOSH":
Shadrina Ekaterina.
Project Manager
primary school teacher
MOU "VSOSH":
Mironova Elena Vladimirovna
year 2014
- Formulation of the problem.
- Objective of the project.
- Project tasks.
- Object of study.
- Hypothesis.
- Research methods.
- Literature.
Formulation of the problem.
White snow fluffy
Spinning in the air
And the earth is quiet
Falling, laying down.
And in the morning with snow
The field is white
Like a veil
All dressed him up.
Winter came. It became cold outside. One morning I woke up and
looked out the window. I saw that everything around: earth, trees, roofs of houses,
became white. It was the first snow.
I thought: “Why is snow white?”
Objective of the project:
Studying and conducting experiments to answer the question "Why is snow white?"
Project objectives:
- Study literature that talks about snow.
- Prove experimentally "Why is snow white?"
Object of study: snow.
Hypothesis: suppose that the white color of the snow is due to the reflection of light.
Research methods:
1. The study of literature on the topic.
2. Observation of the object of study.
3. Conducting experiments.
4. Analysis of the results and conclusions on the study.
Introduction
Snow is frozen water. What color is ice? None. It passes the entire sunbeam through itself and remains colorless. Each snowflake individually would also freely pass a ray of the sun through itself and would also be colorless, like ice. But the snowflakes fall randomly on top of each other. All together they become opaque, do not let the rays through themselves, but on the contrary, reflect them into the eyes. That's why snow looks white.
From my observations, studying the literature, I learned that any snowflake has the shape of a six-pointed star. Regardless of the shape of the snowflakes, they are all white. And the snow is white-white, and if the sun shines, it becomes dazzling white. Why? A snowflake consists of ice and air crystals, the light falling on the rays of a snowflake is reflected from them, scattered and perceived by us as white. And when a sunbeam hits the crystals, it reflects from it and blinds our eyes. I decided to conduct experiments to prove that snow is really white.
Conclusion:
-
each snowflake is a collection of small pieces of ice;
-snowflakes lie differently;
Snowflakes reflect light in different directions.
How I did my experiments
Experience number 1.
I took a transparent plastic bag. She cut it into small pieces. Each piece is a "snowflake".
I put all the pieces in a transparent glass. They positioned themselves differently. Result: "snow" in a white glass.
Experience number 2.
She poured water into a glass and put it in the freezer. The water turned into clear ice.
Mom broke the ice into small pieces. He became white.
Where does snow come from?
In winter, snow falls from the sky in the form of ice crystals.
Water vapor travels from the ground to the atmosphere, forming clouds. Clouds form throughout the year, regardless of temperature.
Snow is water vapor that freezes into ice crystals in the atmosphere. Sometimes it happens that as many as 200 tiny ice crystals form one snowflake, put together, they form snow.
Why does it snow in winter?
When there is a minimal amount of moisture in the air, and the air temperature drops below freezing (0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit) and the ground temperature is steadily below zero, of course, snow falls on the ground: not heavy water drops of rain, but light white snow snow will reach the ground.
Why is snow white?
Snow is virtually colorless. Visible sunlight is white. Most natural materials absorb some spectrum of sunlight, which gives them their color. Because of the absorbency. every thing has its own color. However, snow reflects most of the sunlight. The complex structure of snow crystals results in countless tiny surfaces that effectively reflect visible light. Little sunlight is absorbed by the snow (and is absorbed evenly across the wavelengths of visible light), thus giving the snow its white color. 
What shape are snowflake crystals?
Snow comes in different crystalline forms. Often snowflakes are depicted as stellar dentites. However, snow comes in a variety of forms: it can be simple prisms, simple triangles, hollow columns, or fern-like crystal twigs. The shape of a snow crystal is often too small to see with the naked eye. Researchers use a snowflake photomicroscope to document the different shapes and types of snowflakes.
The first person to successfully photograph snowflakes was farmer Wilson Bentley from Vermont (USA). They called him Snowflake Bentley. After several years of experimenting with connecting microscopes to a bellows chamber, in 1885 Wilson Bentley managed to capture the first photograph of a snowflake. In total, he photographed more than 5,000 precious snowflakes.