Why is the snow white?

Before we talk about why the snow is white, we need to know something about the light that we see things with.  The light that comes from light bulbs or from the sun is called "white light."  This light, although it appears colorless, is made up of all of the colors in the rainbow.  The colors appear in the order of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.  Colors and light are measured in terms of their wavelengths.  Each color is associated with a different wavelength.

The light bounces around in the snowflake, then comes back toward us with no particular colors missing: It will appear white.

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