Ice is amorphous -- like glass -- but
reflective. The rainbow effect is
probably caused the layer of water on
the surface. Compare this to a film of
oil on water. The thickness of the film
will determine the color that is
reflected. The thinnest of films will
reflect almost silver; after this -- as
it gets thinner it will become grey; a
film of about 50Å or less becomes
invisible. The rainbow colours you can
see are between deep blue-violet and
dark red (370 Å deep violet - 730 Å dark
red). The Å unit is old fashioned, but
so am I. These days one uses Nanometres
to convert ad a zero.
Don
Jostein wrote:
Hi Don,
Your crystal pics are lovely.
It's interesting to see that many of your crystals produce the same palette of
colours in polarised light as do natural ice.
Of course, ice can be regarded as a crystal lattice of water, but in ice I've
only seen this effect in cracks; where the lattice is broken by force. I've
never seen it on the surface, like it seems to be in your crystals.
Jostein
Quoting Don Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
If anyone is interested in polarized
light there's a new (Red) button on my
website front page labeled 'Prints'.
This leads to a gallery of crystal
images taken with the *ist D.
Don W
--
Dr E D F Williams
_______________________________
http://personal.inet.fi/cool/don.williams
See feature: The Cement Company from Hell
Updated: Print Gallery -- 16 11 2005
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Dr E D F Williams
_______________________________
http://personal.inet.fi/cool/don.williams
See feature: The Cement Company from Hell
Updated: Print Gallery -- 16 11 2005
