Explain why the water in say a swimming pool appears to be s

Explain why the water in, say, a swimming pool appears to be shallower than it really is, and why it appears to be blue.

Solution

Answer:

The refraction of light at the surface of water makes ponds and swimming pools appear shallower than they really are.

The molecules in the atmosphere (or in the water) scatrter the blue part of the spectrum, and the red and yellow parts of the spectrum tend to pass straight through. To us looking from the ground up to the sky, or into the water, the blue light seems to be coming from everywhere (this is called \'Rayleigh scattereing\'); hence the sky or water seems blue.