WHERE DOES THE WHITE GO,
WHEN THE SNOW DISAPPEARS?
Snow is made of frozen water and water is clear, so why is snow white?
While water and ice are clear substances, they do slightly change the direction of light passing through them - think of looking at someone under water in a swimming pool, or how ice cubes out of your freezer are often a little cloudy.
A snowflake is made of thousands of tiny ice crystals that come together at all different angles, reflecting light in all different directions.
When it snows, many snowflakes are stacked on top of each other, creating so many different reflections that the light is reflected back and appears to be white.
When the white snow melts it turns into water, which does not have the thousands of angled surfaces that change the of direction of light, so the light can now just pass through the water and we see the color of whatever was below the snow. When the snow is gone, the white is gone!
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See for yourself: MELTING SNOW
If you live in a place where there is snow in the winter, or if you have access to shaved ice, you can watch the white disappear. Fill a clear glass jar with snow or shaved ice, and close the lid. Put the jar somewhere warm, and watch as the snow melts, turning the white into clear water. How long did it take?