🚀 go-pugleaf

We all know that water is blue...  if you look at the ocean, it's clearly
blue (unless you're looking into one of the multitude of oil-spills now
polluting the coastlines)...
 
Anyhow...  when you pour yourself a glass of water...  it's clear.
 
Keeping in mind that water molecules have a blueness to them, how deep
would water have to be in order for it to appear 'blue' instead of 'clear' ?
 
It's a brutal question, but I remember it from one of my highschool physics
assignments... (ie:  I got it wrong)

Water isn't blue. The ocean appears blue because it reflects the sky.
(look at it on a stormy day, it's gray)

-Mike

In article <1993Jan26.195224.25820@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> bwatson@nyx.cs.du.edu (bruce watson) writes:

> On last night's Pole to Pole, part 5 with Michael Palin he has 
> gotten halfway to his goal of the south pole -- the equator.
> At the site of a burned out hotel, in Kenya, a man was
> demonstrating with a rectangular tub (about 0.3 meters widest)
> with a small hole at the bottom, that on one side of the equator
> it emptied swirling in one direction, on the equator no swirling,
> and on the other side swirling in the opposite direction.
> No one, including Michael, repudiated this nor was it endorsed.
> I'll have to rewatch the episode to see if they got the 
> directions right. I couldn't see him giving a little start
> to the process.

If I remember correctly, they did not get the directions right.
--
                                   Dan Prener (prener@watson.ibm.com)

In article <C1JCBF.756@world.std.com>, moroney@world.std.com (Michael
Moroney) wrote:
> 
> Water isn't blue. The ocean appears blue because it reflects the sky.
> (look at it on a stormy day, it's gray)
> 
> -Mike

Not exactly.  Refraction of sunlight through the water must also be
considered. That is why "gin clear" water is green when shallow, and gets
more blue with depth.  Even on a cloudy day, shallow clear water looks
green (although with a decidedly grayish cast).

Adios

In article <C1JCBF.756@world.std.com> moroney@world.std.com (Michael Moroney) writes:
>Water isn't blue. The ocean appears blue because it reflects the sky.
>(look at it on a stormy day, it's gray)
>

Um, are you saying that when the Earth is viewed from space, the
oceans look dark blue because they reflect the sky?  I am having
trouble visualizing this process.



	Mike Urban

	urban@cobra.jpl.nasa.gov

moroney@world.std.com (Michael Moroney) writes:
|> Water isn't blue. The ocean appears blue because it reflects the sky.
|> (look at it on a stormy day, it's gray)
|> 
There is a lake straddling the border of Utah and Idaho; Bear Lake.  It is
locally noted because it is intensely blue even on steel grey overcast days.
What Mike says may be generally true, but I'll bet Bear Lake isn't the only
exception around.
-- 
				Bruce Gold
				   Utah