I can understand how liquids and gasses that are less dense than solids can appear transparent, but how does a solid allow light to pass through?
In: Physics
Glass doesn’t absorb visible light, which is the spectrum of light we see in, so you can see right through it. Just like sunglasses and sunblock both block UV rays, you can see through both of them just fine as well. Same principle.
Atoms and molecules are made out of nucleons and electrons. Electrons can absorb light aka photons. In a specific atom/molecule they can only absorb a certain amount of energy to move to a higher energy state, this energy comes in discrete packets called quanta which comes in the form of photons. When photons pass through glass they don’t get absorbed because they don’t have the right energy level for the electrons inside the glass, but UV light on the other hand has the right amount of energy and gets absorbed so you will never get a sun burn standing behind glass.
When materials become denser (like liquids an solids like you mentioned) there is more energy levels for the photons to interact with. Even if 1 type of light is reflected off of an atom then you still won’t be able to see through it.
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