What makes something transparent physics

Light rays can pass through these substances. The refractive index of transparent substances is nearly uniform. Most of the light, incident on a transparent object, transmits through it.

While passing through a transparent object, the amount of scattering is very less. Therefore, a clear image is seen on the other side of the substance. Window glasses are transparent in nature. Transparent materials e. Translucent Objects. A substance is called translucent if it allows partial transmission.

The light rays get scattered in the interior of such objects. Consequently, the light rays emerge out at random directions. If any object is seen through a translucent material, the image appears fuzzy or blurred. Translucency can occur due to the following properties,. Non-uniform Density: If a material has a non-uniform distribution of matter, its density is different at different parts. Such density distribution can result in irregular refraction and transmission.

Density fluctuations may cause scattering centers. At the points of fluctuations, the light rays get scattered. Crystallographic Defects: Defects e. Boundaries: Grain boundaries in a polycrystalline structure and cell boundaries in an organism can behave as scattering centers. Some examples of translucent objects are frosted glass, butter paper, tissue, various plastics, and so on. Opaque Objects. Opaque substances do not allow the transmission of light.

Any incident light gets reflected, absorbed, or scattered. Each boundary tends to diffuse the light that passes through; if the regions are small enough, however, the light waves essentially 'jump' right over them.

It has no internal grain boundaries, and hence it looks transparent. Solid silicon dioxide sand , in contrast, has obvious grain boundaries, so it is not transparent. One way to do this is to press a material under force, as is done all the time with potassium bromide, a compound used for infrared spectroscopy in laboratories.

The other way to achieve uniformity is to create lots of nucleation sites the locations where crystals begin to form in a melted material and then allow it to cool. Because many little crystals begin to form all at once, none of them can grow very large before they run into one another. The transparent Corningware sold today is made in this manner.

It has the transparency of glass, but it is really a ceramic material similar to regular Corningware. Newsletter Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Already a subscriber? Sign in. This involves electron energy levels transition. This answer is a little circular and like Burley's. Transparent materials have uniform electromagnetic coupling between its molecules. Think of glass as a uniform array of tiny capacitors.

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Why is glass transparent? Ask Question. Asked 10 years, 7 months ago. Active 2 years, 2 months ago. Viewed k times. Improve this question. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. There are important differences in these absorption possibilities: Atoms absorb well-defined discrete frequencies.

Usually single atoms absorb only a few frequencies - it depends on the energetic spectrum of its electrons. Regarding atomic absorption, the graph of absorption plotted as a function of frequency of light contains well-defined peaks for frequencies when absorption occurs, and no absorption at all between them.

Molecules absorb discrete frequencies but there are many more absorption lines because even a simple molecule has many more energetic levels than any atom. So molecules absorb much more light. Crystalline lattices may absorb not only discrete frequencies but also continuous bands of frequencies, mainly because of discrepancies in the crystalline structure. Improve this answer. Do other type of photons behave like visible light i.

When You try to analyse light and matter interactions there is many process to take into account. But from the form of the question I presume You need a basic level answer. Real interaction is quantum one in absorption-emission area, but may be wave dynamic in certain frequencies - for example interference should be analysed etc. It is rather complicated when You would like to take account on all phenomena which may occur.

In spite of being non-crystalline, glasses too have bands. Show 2 more comments. Marek Marek That is why glass is not only transparent but also preserves images for eg. Why is this the case? Image is preserved in every transparent material unless it possesses some additional symmetry e. But for disordered materials there is no such thing.