Talk:Transparency and translucency/Archive 1

A Question from Children

Children have asked me, but I've never been able to answer: "How come light passes through glass which is hard and dense, and not through cardboard which is softer and less dense?" They want to know if in glass there are "tunnels" through the glass that let photons slip through unobstructed, or if its more like a chain reaction where a photon entering the glass bumps off another photon which bumps off another photon, etc., until a photon emerges out the other side. Can someone please answer this in a way that, let's say, a twelve-year-old, could understand? Skeppy (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 08:42, 8 October 2008 (UTC).

Question

What properties of materials makes them transparent? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.33.131.54 (talk) 10:47, January 16, 2005

That depends on the structure of the electrons of the outer shells of the substance and in particular, how these electrons interact in the solid body being the material. There is a complicated theory "predicting" (calculating) absorption and its spectral dependence of different materials.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 145.64.134.241 (talk) 11:03, September 7, 2005

Induced transparency

Article should also discuss Induced Transparency, Electromagnetically Induced Transparency and transparent metals (aluminium can be made transparent). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vinsci (talk • contribs) 18:36, March 17, 2005

Difference between transparency and translucency

May I sugest the following difference between TRANSPARENT an TRANSLUCENT:

  A transparent body lets more or less light go through, BUT does not affect the
  information transmitted (imagine for example the dark glasses used to observe a
  solar eclipse).

  A translucent body, on the other hand, prevents the information to get through:
  there is light going through, but one can not distinguish what is on the other
  side.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.155.116.184 (talk) 19:35, November 3, 2005

done

Induced Transparency, Electromagnetically Induced Transparency and transparent metals (aluminium can be made transparent). Are on the AMB page under Engineering. Mion 15:20, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Still needs

There is a complicated theory "predicting" (calculating) absorption and its spectral dependence of different materials. Mion 15:20, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

I'd like to see more of a discussion of this. That is, what are the physics of transparency; what's happening with light waves/photons that allows them to pass through a transparent material. A brief discussion of other EM wavelengths would be nice too; i.e., noting how (for example) brick walls are transparent to longer radio waves, though not to microwaves. RedSpruce 13:54, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

done

Mion 15:27, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Solids

What is the most transparent solid? Plexiglass lets more light through than glass, but it's still possible to see light reflecting off of it. Is there a solid that lets so much light through that it's almost impossible to tell that it's there?

general quality of discussion low

This page doesn't have a very cogent discussion of the physical processes (scattering and absorption) involved in making a material "transparent", "translucent", or "opaque"...52.128.30.23 20:09, 25 May 2007 (UTC)Jim

Pyrex not a plastic?

The phrase, "most glasses, and plastics such as Perspex and Pyrex" implies that both Pespex and Pyrex are plastic. Pyrex isn't a plastic. 140.147.160.34 (talk) 22:21, 2 January 2008 (UTC)Stephen Kosciesza