The White of Snow

This morning, my daughter asks me why snow is white. What is it reflecting? She explains that seawater isn’t actually blue; it just reflects the sky. You’ll know this when you capture it in your hands or in a bottle.

I find a website, “Ask a Science Teacher” for us to learn. I read this: “When light goes into snow, it hits all those ice crystals and air pockets and bounces around, and then some of the light comes back out. Snow reflects all the colors; no it doesn’t absorb, transmit, or scatter any single color or wavelength more than any other. The ‘color’ of all the light wavelengths combined equally is white. So all the colors coming out are the same colors that go in, combining to make white light.”

I love thinking of the soft, white, snow showing no favoritism. It reflects everything, absorbs nothing, and brings us such beauty. When I look at snow, I’m looking at bouncing light.

I love learning with my daughter.

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