Polar bears'
fur consists of a dense, insulating underfur topped by guard
hairs of various lengths. It is not actually white — it just looks
like white. Each hair shaft is pigment-free, transparent with a hollow core that scatters and reflects visible light, much like
what happens with ice and snow. Polar bears
look whitest when they are clean and in high angle sunlight, especially just
after the they shed old hair or skin to make way for a
new growth, which usually begins in spring and is complete by late summer.
Before shedding their old hair or skin, accumulated oils in their fur from the
seals they eat can make them look yellow.
Showing posts with label white. Show all posts
Showing posts with label white. Show all posts
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Why does water appear white when it falls from height?
![]() |
Aharbal Water Fall |
Water
falling from a height appears white is due to a phenomenon called non-selective
scattering.
When
water falls from a height with high velocity, lot of tiny water droplets are
formed around the falling mass of water due to the bombardment of water with
the rocks. These tiny droplets are about 100-1000 times bigger in size when
compared with the wavelength of visible light which human eyes can see.
The light coming from the sun which
the humans can see has three primary colours red, green and blue. When light
rays confront the water droplets, they scatter the entire visible range. When these
three primary colours red, green and blue are mixed in equal proportions, and
produce white colour due to scattering of light. Hence, the colour we see after
scattering by the water droplets is white.
When water falls with a low velocity, very less or
even no such tiny droplets are formed around the water falling from height, hence
no scattering takes place and we do not see white falling water.
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