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Shake water and seed oil: color and density

Physics Asked on December 17, 2020

These days I am spraying the leaves of my garden, to prevent insects, mixing strongly water and soya oil. The color has become all white.

Soy oil has a relative density of $0.915 div 0.925$ kg/dm$^3$ and the water is $1.000$ kg/dm$^3$.

The white colour I believe is due to the strong mixing that breaks the bonds of soya oil and water.

Is there a physical or mathematical method, starting with the densities, to justify the white colour?

One Answer

What you're observing is the Tyndall effect.

The Tyndall effect is light scattering by particles in a colloid or in a very fine suspension. Also known as Willis–Tyndall scattering, it is similar to Rayleigh scattering, in that the intensity of the scattered light is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the wavelength, so blue light is scattered much more strongly than red light. An example in everyday life is the blue colour sometimes seen in the smoke emitted by motorcycles, in particular two-stroke machines where the burnt engine oil provides these particles.

Correct answer by Gert on December 17, 2020

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