We know why the sky is blue, and such, but why are clouds always white?

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   The Examiner-1posted 9 years ago

   We know why the sky is blue, and such, but why are clouds always white?
   
   Do you have proof or facts of your answer?

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   bethperryposted 9 years ago

   They are white because swanmaidens and wights prefer to make celestial love on cotton, which they gather from the fields of Urda and take to the heavens. And the celestial mattresses get dark when their lovers spill dark ale on them, or when the darkling elves venture by and pee on them.
   

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      The Examiner-1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Let us get serious here. I was asking the question seriously, not for fun.

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      bethperryposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      What a bummer. In that case: because moisture contains all the colors of the light spectrum, and the color "white" only occurs when all these colors come together.

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      The Examiner-1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      That is the simplest answer so far Beth. It makes sense.

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   Snøwmanposted 9 years ago

   Clouds are white because they reflect light. The only reason you don't see your reflection in a cloud like you do in a lake is because the droplets are moving to fast and it scatters the light from the reflection. This is also the reason rapids and waterfalls are white.

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      The Examiner-1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you Snowman.

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   Little two twoposted 9 years ago

   To understand why clouds are white you need to understand light.
   
   The sun emits energy over a wide range and we only see a small portion of that energy with the naked eye, the visible spectrum - red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet light. When all those colours combine we get white light/colour. The visible spectrum (light) travels as waves of different lengths, each colour has its very own unique wavelength. Which ever colour(s) gets scattered, is the colour we see.
   
   Clouds are composed of mainly water and ice particles or droplets. When the light passes through these droplets it scatters all the light and creates the white colour we see. Since all colours make white.
   
   Wait water is blue, look at the ocean.
   
   Water in the ocean is made up of much smaller molecules that only scatter blue and violet wave lengths, thus the appearance of a blue colour. Cloud water molecules are larger and scatter the entire spectrum, thus white.
   
   This applies to all colours we see. 
   
   Most of this info can be found in textbooks or such, have no linking proof to share.
   
   Hope it helps.

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   abidareacodeposted 9 years ago

   Cloud consists of numerous water drops.When light enters this clouds it undergoes multiple scattering.The different wavelengths in light (different colours) are there , but they are absorbed a little even after scattering.So the emerged light after scattering also consists of all wavelengths which will be felt as white itself.This colour is observed by us as the colour of cloud.
   But remember that clouds are not always white .They can have gray or black or some other colours depending on its thickness.

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      The Examiner-1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The gray or black is in, or just before, a rainstorm. The sky usually is not blue at those times either, but we know what changes that color.

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   mbuggiehposted 9 years ago

   Where I live the clouds are definitely not always white.
   
   That said, when the clouds are white they are white because they contain water droplets or ice crystals are large enough to scatter the wavelengths of light (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet) which combine to produce white light.
   
   Here is some information:
   
   http://www.weather.com/news/science/why … e-20131013

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      The Examiner-1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I looked at the information. I have to look at it again because I did not catch it the first time.

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