why are the clouds white/grey?

1.62K views

How come the clouds are white or grey. If clouds contain water which is clear/translucesnt, why are the clouds so clearly visible?

In: Chemistry

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Clouds are not water in liquid form at rest. It is many very small water vapour/particles separated by air in between. That being the case, you can think of it as small water beads, which has a different interaction with light.

This is similar to clear glass in a window that is transparent (like water in a pool), but hundreds of glass marbles side by side (like water vapour or steam) will not be transparent like that; the image behind will be distorted.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Thats because clouds arent JUST water. If they were you would be right, clouds would have no color. But clouds exist in vapor form. Like the steam in your shower. The light hits this vapor and diffuses, bouncing around in the vapor molecules. Witch is why clouds cast shadows sometimes.