Article View: sci.materials
Article #318Re: Why some materials you can see through?
From: K. M. A. Rahman
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 03:43
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 03:43
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In article <1992Dec15.100452.1@stsci.edu>, gawne@stsci.edu writes: - - I am wondering why some materials are transparency to our eyes? - Can anyone give me some hint? - Thank you. --------------------------------------- Well, a photon can travel thru anything provided is doesn't get absorbed or scattered. Obviously transparent materials don't absorb or scatter (some percentage of) the photons incident on them. So the photon is not getting absorbed. Why? What else do you know about solids like glass, such as their electrical conductivity, that might help here? Compare this to a metal which is opaque and has a very different electrical conductivity. Finally, why isn't the glass in windows transparent to UV or IR radiation? Clue, for UV photon energies the glass responds about like the metals do for visible photons. Enough hints? If you need more, read "Dance of the Solids", a wonderful poem by John Updike that was in the 1967 September issue of Scientific American. -Bill Gawne, Space Telescope Science Institute --------------------------------------------------------- Perdon my intervention. I was reading this article with interest. I am curious to know how the conductivity of a material is related to its transparency. Would you please throw some light on it? With thanks, -Anis.
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!olivea!spool.mu.edu!vms.csd.mu.edu!5916RAHMANK From: 5916rahmank@vms.csd.mu.edu (K. M. A. Rahman) Newsgroups: sci.materials Subject: Re: Why some materials you can see through? Message-ID: <00965314.08C86300@vms.csd.mu.edu> Date: 17 Dec 92 03:43:28 GMT References: <1992Dec4.082609.16759@gn.ecn.purdue.edu> <1992Dec4.201825.1@stsci.edu> <1992Dec10.172248.28474@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>,<1992Dec15.100452.1@stsci.edu> Reply-To: 5916rahmank@vms.csd.mu.edu Distribution: na Organization: Department of EECE, Marquette University Lines: 32 NNTP-Posting-Host: vmsf.csd.mu.edu