Why do swimming pools look blue?

Question

water has no color so why blue?

Answer 1

Ignore the first answer, it's nothing to do with chemical reactions. Really this should be asked in the physics section, but oh well. The answer is the same as the reason the sea and sky are also blue:



Light is made up of 7 distinct colours:

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Blue

Indigo

Violet



They're the constituent colours of light and can be seen everywhere eg a rainbow, when light is shone through a prism etc.



Basically, each colour of light has a different wavelength. Water molecules (H2O) absorb pretty much all of light EXCEPT for the blue wavelength. Likewise air molecules (80% nitrogen) absorb most of the light except for blue.



You have to remember that molecules are TINY as are light photons, only a very few collide. It would be like firing a bullet at a target one mile away: it would be virtually every time. Then if you fired a grapeshot you would hit nearly every time. The same is try with light refraction and absorption: the bigger volume of water, the more the light would be absorbed. That's why a glass of water is clear, but the sea is blue as it has so much water.

Answer 2

Why Are Swimming Pools Blue

Answer 3

Actually, large bodies of water look green, but pool water is filtered so only the blue shows through.

Answer 4

Water IS (very very light) blue. The more of it you have in one place, the more you notice - you'd not say pool water was blue if you only had a glassful sitting in front of you.



Google it and see what I mean. :)

Answer 5

THE QUESTION SHOULD BE : WHY ARE POOLS SO OFTEN PAINTED BLUE INSTEAD OF ALL OTHER COLORS . LIGHT REFRACTION IS ALL VERY WELL BUT DOESN'T ADDRESS THE PAINT COLOR SO OFTEN CHOSEN .

Answer 6

the tiles are blue..you #$&@^*

Answer 7

maybe something to do with light?