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Water is clear because the electrons that make up its atomic structure are not capable of absorbing or reflecting much visible light. it slightly reflects blue light, but this is only noticeable in large scale quantities (like Swimming Pools and oceans).

Another rather interesting property of water is that it refracts light (changes its direction) by slowing the speed of light down to about two-thirds its speed in a vacuum. this property is solely responsible for the "darkening" of materials.

Think of, say, a green shirt. Imagine water suddenly spilled on it. What would it look like? the affected areas will have a comparatively darker color. This is due to the fact that some of the light that was supposed to be reflected to the eye of the observer has in fact been internally refracted away by an intrinsic layer of water now on the shirt, which in turn causes the shirt to appear darker-looking.

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14y ago

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