de Coyote wrote: > It seems like a differently configured crystal would reflect a different > color of light. > Any ideas? >
Don't confuse reflection with absorption. Reflection is the basis for tyndall, and in that case the shorter wavelengths are always scattered more than the longer wavelengths, independent of size (in the range we are interested in). Thus tyndall is always a bluish color from white light, ie. skim milk, water, the clear sky. Absorption wavelength of silver however is VERY dependent on the size of the particle, moving from UV at the atomic level through blue, green, yellow, orange, red and finally infrared, as particle size increases. The color you see is what is left and thus the complement of the color absorbed, and moves from colorless, to yellow, gold, orange, red, violet, blue, green to clear or grey. However since there are normall a lot of different sized particles in the violet, blue and green stuff, the result is usually a brown. Marshall -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. To join or quit silver-list or silver-digest send an e-mail message to: [email protected] -or- [email protected] with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the SUBJECT line. To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
