what colour is water(or does it have a colour)?

wonton

Drunk in the pub the other night we ended up debating about the colour of water( I know what you're thinking, "calm down you crazy bastards") and even ended up putting a 10 euro bet on it.

so while im waiting on my email response from stephen fry

do you think water is blue or clear?



also whats the most ridiculous thing you have got into a debate in a pub about?

Xivilai

I thought water was supposed to be brown

Adam

watercolour.... :pac:

Terry

It's clear.
The blue is a reflection of the sky.
Sweet Jesus. Did anyone pay attention to the basics in Primary school?

Marcus.Aurelius

Pure water is a clear, colourless liquid, read a Science textbook.

Senna

And you either had way to much alcohol to be debating this, or no-where near enough.

irish_goat

Marcus.Aurelius wrote: »

Pure water is a clear, colourless liquid, look at a glass of water

fyp.

2qk4u

One of the few things I remember from school is that water is a colorless orderless tasteless liquid..

Helix

water appears clear in small amounts, however in larger volumes you can see it's actual colour which is blue - its just that its got such a paltry shade of blue we cant see it unless there are billions of litres of it

the "the sea is blue coz its a reflection of the sky" is absolute turd

TeddyTedson

In Spain it's brown
In paradise it's blue
In Ireland it's clear, unless you're in the bath, then it's white.

phasers

This is, without a doubt, the stupidest question I've seen in an awfully long time.


How the fcuk could water be blue? Why didn't one of you just go to the bar and ask for a glass of bloody water?

Kimono-Girl

*analyses tap water*

its clear with white bits floating...

Helix

phasers wrote: »

This is, without a doubt, the stupidest question I've seen in an awfully long time.


How the fcuk could water be blue? Why didn't one of you just go to the bar and ask for a glass of bloody water?

The color of water is a subject of both scientific study and popular misconception. While relatively small quantities of water are observed by humans to be colorless, pure water has a slight blue color that becomes a deeper blue as the thickness of the observed sample increases. The blue tint of water is an intrinsic property and is caused by selective absorption and scattering of white light. Impurities dissolved or suspended in water may give water different colored appearances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_of_water

Snake Pliisken

Watch more QI. Fry says all kinds of quite interesting stuff- like the colour of pure water being a very slight blue but this isn't observable in small quantities, like your puny glass or dirty tumbler.

Oranage2

Water has no colour cause its imaginary!

TeddyTedson

Snake Pliisken wrote: »

Watch more QI. Fry says all kinds of quite interesting stuff- like the colour of pure water being a very slight blue but this isn't observable in small quantities, like your puny glass or dirty tumbler.

!



...huh?

wonton

phasers wrote: »

This is, without a doubt, the stupidest question I've seen in an awfully long time.


How the fcuk could water be blue? Why didn't one of you just go to the bar and ask for a glass of bloody water?

then why are indoor swimming pools blue?


http://elitechoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/biggest-indoor-swimming-pool-1.jpg



and notice how it gets more blue in the deep section? the more amount of the substance the more blue it is...........and thats why one glass does not look blue

Helix

Marcus.Aurelius wrote: »

Have you ever read a Chemistry text book??????? Water does not absorb light (say in a spectrophotometer) because it's colourless.

What do you blank a spec with? WATER.

Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Helix wrote: »

The color of water is a subject of both scientific study and popular misconception. While relatively small quantities of water are observed by humans to be colorless, pure water has a slight blue color that becomes a deeper blue as the thickness of the observed sample increases. The blue tint of water is an intrinsic property and is caused by selective absorption and scattering of white light. Impurities dissolved or suspended in water may give water different colored appearances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_of_water

ta'ra now

wonton

Oranage2 wrote: »

cause its imaginary!

no, that would be your sex life.

Adam

wonton wrote: »

no, that would be your sex life.

ooooooh, sick burn...

Marcus.Aurelius

Helix wrote: »

ta'ra now

Someone needs to rewrite my college notes. Interesting.

On a sidenote, dude, it's wikipedia. If there's published papers, that's one thing. I'm not saying there aren't, but Wiki is hardly reliable.

liah

It's definitely blue.

wonton

actually i should have put this in the popular science forum.

If a mod sees this could he move it please, sorry i wasnt thinking.

admiralofthefleet

what colour is a fart?

blue

because it blew out of your arse

thenutflush

I wondered why the frisbee was getting bigger, and then it hit me


... carry on

quarryman

Terry wrote: »

It's clear.
The blue is a reflection of the sky.
Sweet Jesus. Did anyone pay attention to the basics in Primary school?

Marcus.Aurelius wrote: »

Pure water is a clear, colourless liquid, read a Science textbook.

Clearly neither of you two did since both your posts are bullis**t.

How about doing your research before belittling others with genuine questions?

starbelgrade

Marcus.Aurelius wrote: »

Someone needs to rewrite my college notes. Interesting.

On a sidenote, dude, it's wikipedia. If there's published papers, that's one thing. I'm not saying there aren't, but Wiki is hardly reliable.

Wiki is generally a lot more reliable than people give it credit for.

As with a lot of Wikipedia articles, this one references published papers, which are linked at the bottom of the article.

The Gnome

Marcus.Aurelius wrote: »

On a sidenote, dude, it's wikipedia. If there's published papers, that's one thing. I'm not saying there aren't, but Wiki is hardly reliable.

I assume the Journal of Chemical Education will suffice?

Jumpy

Mono... DOH

Germag

2 old guys staring into their pints for a long time, then one says to the other and I quote " Where do flies go to in the winter?" " Don't know ,where do they go?"

TheZohanS

The truth...

starbelgrade

The Gnome wrote: »

I assume the Journal of Chemical Education will suffice?

Well, if it isn't the eminent Professor Mc Smarty Smart Chops!

Oranage2

wonton wrote: »

no, that would be your sex life.

Adam wrote: »

ooooooh, sick burn...

Gayest post I've seen on boards, no doubt a reflection of the poster!

m@cc@

Got another for yous.

Light is invisible, it only takes the colour of whatever it reflects off.

The Gnome

starbelgrade wrote: »

Well, if it isn't the eminent Professor Mc Smarty Smart Chops!

You, my dear filthy layman, can refer to me by my full title, Doctor Professor Mc Smarty Smart Chops MSc MD PhD DSc VII Esq.

Adam

Oranage2 wrote: »

Gayest post I've seen on boards, no doubt a reflection of the poster!

i'm a raging homosexual, what of it?

Helix

Marcus.Aurelius wrote: »

Someone needs to rewrite my college notes. Interesting.

On a sidenote, dude, it's wikipedia. If there's published papers, that's one thing. I'm not saying there aren't, but Wiki is hardly reliable.

it hurts doesnt it

Voodu Child

wonton wrote: »

then why are indoor swimming pools blue?

My local swimming pool is yellow

barbarians

From The Book of General Ignoance, written by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson, the makers and producers of television show QI hosted by Stephen Fry. This show delves into the depths of information and research to inform people on matters that they take for fact and prove their ignorance wrong.

Page 126 of the Noticeably Stouter Edition of this book.


" Q. What colour is water ?

A. The usual answer is that it isn't any colour; it's 'clear' and 'transparent' and the sea only appears because of the reflection ok the sky.
Wrong. Water really is blue. It's an incredibly faint shade, but it is blue. You can see this in nature when you look into a deep hole in the snow, or through the thick of a frozen waterfall. If you took a very large, very deep white pool, filled it with water and look straight down through it. The water would be blue.

Edit

In large bodies of water like seas and lakes he water will usually contain a high concentration of microscopic plants and algae. Rivers and ponds will have a high concentration of soil and other solids in suspension. All these particles reflc and scatter the light as it returns the the surface, creating huge variations in the colour we see. It explains why you sometimes see a brilliant green Mediterranean sea under a bright blue sky."


( Couldn't be arsed writing out the other additional scone ce details that prove the point )



Anyway, yeah water is blue.

barbarians

m@cc@ wrote: »

Got another for yous.

Light is invisible, it only takes the colour of whatever it reflects off.

You a QI fan ?

Another one :

Darkness; it's not there but you can't see through it.

rambolitis

:rolleyes:

wonton wrote: »

Drunk in the pub the other night we ended up debating about the colour of water( I know what you're thinking, "calm down you crazy bastards") and even ended up putting a 10 euro bet on it.

so while im waiting on my email response from stephen fry

do you think water is blue or clear?



also whats the most ridiculous thing you have got into a debate in a pub about?

GLaDOS

m@cc@ wrote: »

Light is invisible

How come you can see light sources that aren't reflecting off anything? The sun, a lamp, fire?

Pace2008

Terry wrote: »

It's clear.
The blue is a reflection of the sky.
Sweet Jesus. Did anyone pay attention to the basics in Primary school?

As well as this piece of complete misinformation, we also were were taught that gravity is caused by the earth spinning.

You'd do well to forget a lot of science "facts" you learned in primary school. It wasn't even a subject until very recently, well after I left school.

Tar.Aldarion

dunno why everybody is laughing at him....the colour of water is blue due to scattering and absorption etc.

karlog

Pace2008 wrote: »

As well as this piece of complete misinformation, we also were were taught that gravity is caused by the earth spinning.

You'd do well to forget a lot of science "facts" you learned in primary school. It wasn't even a subject until very recently, well after I left school.

It's not?

Pace2008

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

dunno why everybody is laughing at him....the colour of water is blue due to scattering and absorption etc.

Because if you spend enough time reading science-related "debates" on AH you'll realise a huge amount of posters place more value on the power of personal observation than trivialities like fact and reality.

northernpower

Helix wrote: »

ta'ra now

If you use water to blank a spectrophotometer it usually means the wave length being used is in around 460nm - blue light

ta'ra now

Ponster

ScienceNerd wrote: »

How come you can see light sources that aren't reflecting off anything? The sun, a lamp, fire?

Naaa, in fact light is the only thing that we can see; everything else is invisible as we need light to bounce of objects in order to perceive them

To answer your question, light isn't really invisible (no matter what QI says). A perpendicular beam of light of which no photons are falling on your retina will of course appear invisible. The example of a laser is usually given as it has a very hight degree of spatial coherence (doesn't spread out much as compared say to a lamp).
The sun though is not a 'perfect' light source and has a high spatial (and temporal) coherence. You can see it because your eye is getting in the way of the photons that it emits.

barbarians

ScienceNerd wrote: »

How come you can see light sources that aren't reflecting off anything? The sun, a lamp, fire?

This is light itself not light sources we're talking about. It makes sense because if you could see light if would just form kind of fog between your eyes and objects. What we really see us what light bumps into.
A beam of light in a vacuum shining at right angles to an observer can't be seen.

GLaDOS

northernpower wrote: »

If you use water to blank a spectrophotometer it usually means the wave length being used is in around 460nm - blue light

ta'ra now

The quote he posted said water was blue

xoxyx

Water is blue; shadows are grey; reflections are silver; dreams are purple... That's how I see things anyway...