Tuesday, January 27, 2009

ILL answer desk question #11

Dear ILL Answerman,

Why is snow white?

Jack F.


Dear Jack,

Snow is not actually white. Believing snow to be white is a fairly common misconception, so there's no need to feel stupid for making that mistake. What happens is that cold temperatures cause the blood vessels in the human eyeball to contract causing minute distortions in what we perceive. Snow is actually pink, but in order to see pink snow you'll have to heat it to room temperature. However, dogs, due to their different evolutionary needs, have exceptionally temperature resistant blood vessels and so are able to perceive snow in it's natural pinkish hue.

The ILL Answerman

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where is Captain ILL?? I miss him terribly. He's left a whole in my day that no one else can fill. Sob

Captain ILL said...

Never fear. I have transferred Captain ILL's hydrated remains from the punch bowl to a sealed container so he won't evaporate. The human body is somewhere around 60% water, so as soon as the missing 40% of Captain ILL can be located, perhaps a Mad Scientist can be prevailed upon to recombine the Captain.