Title says it all. And I’m not talking about cloudy water. Just the stream itself looks white when it gets to a certain speed. When it settles in a cup it looks the same. Does it bubble when it moves or something? Why would there be bubbles from the faucet? I just don’t get it. (‘:
In: Physics
Faucets usually have aerators, which reduce both water consumption, splashing, noise, random directions, etc by adding air to the running water. Slower flow rates reduce the efficiency of this process by allowing less aeration and more debubbling of the air that did get in. Why does it look white? That’s just light refraction and scattering due to the many interfaces it encounters between air and water in the flowing column.
The smooth, clear flow is called laminar flow. Every water molecule is moving in basically the same direction. The white flow is highly turbulent. Air from both the faucet around you and cavitation bubbles (i.e. bubbles of water vapor caused by low pressure in small spots) both get mixed into the water as it gushes out.
The other answers are correct, but more simply, take a picture of the underside of the facet where the water comes out (with the water turned off). Usually there is a metal screen of sorts that screws on to the end of the faucet, not exactly sure why tbh. But getting into the laminar/turbulent flow mentioned in the other comment, when the water is flowing slowly, it easily passes through the metal screen without much disruption (imagine a slow moving stream going through rocks), but when you turn the water up and it’s going faster, the water collides against the screen harder causing the molecules to bounce, leading to turbulent flow (like fast moving rapids of a river where people go white water rafting). The water bouncing around causes bubbles to form as the water comes out, combined with the turbulence, which causes light to not easily pass through the water, making it appear white
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