why is snow white?

[spunkypumpkn]

This question has nothing to do with Disney!

Why IS snow white? Ice is colourless.... as is water, so why is snow white?

[NetSquirrel]

A white object appears white because it reflects a high percentage of the visible light falling on it, without absorbing any particular wavelength more than the others.  Similarly, see-through objects allow a high percentage of the visible light falling on them to pass through, without absorbing any particular wavelength more than the others.

Look at the snowflakes seen here http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/photos/photos.htm and you will see that each individual snowflake is in fact (almost) transparent, just like ice and water.  Snowflakes' intricate shapes give them the property of reflecting and refracting light in many directions.  I.e. white light hitting the snowflake from one direction will be reflected, refracted and split into many beams of light travelling in different directions, often with the result of splitting the white light into its component wavelengths (colours).

When you have many thousands of snowflakes together in a pile, and shine white light onto them, the light is reflected and refracted billions of times, and leaves the pile of snowflakes travelling (almost) uniformly in all directions making the snow appear white to our eyes.

Actually, you could say that snow is slightly blue, because water itself is not transparent, but absorbs a small amount of the red/orange region of visible light, thus appearing blue.

[Gef]

Good answer by NetSquirrel except water is not blue.

[IndieSinger]

Actually, for reasons NetSquirrel outlines above, it is.

[IndieSinger]

That posted before I'd finished.

Although only ever so slightly. A glass of water would be, although not to the naked eye, an incredibly pale shade of blue.

[eupraxia]

I thought water was blue because of the oxygen in it.

[Diablod666]

water is blue because of the hydrogen in it. same thing with the sky.

the reason why the sea or any large mass of water is blue, but a glass of water seems clear is because of the amount of it you are looking through. when you look into the sea you are looking through billions of billions of particals of hydrogen, and all that slightly blue tint adds up. when you are looking through a glass of water you are only looking through a fraction of that amount, and so it does not seem as blue.

[Gef]

Last two answers are rubbish (sorry no offence meant). However, don't eat the yellow snow!!!