Super heated steam colour 1

[baasi]

Anyone can explain me that why we can not see super heated steam? I need brief explanation

 

[KoachCSR]

The steam you normally see, say when you boil a pot of water, is actually suspended liquid water droplets entrained in the gas. Since superheated steam has no entrained liquid droplets, it is invisible.

 

[Latexman]

Water vapor is colorless.

Good luck,
Latexman

To a ChE, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.

 

[IRstuff]

Likewise, we can't see most of the gases in the atmosphere, which are essentially superheated as well.

[edit] although, the sky is somewhat blue from a scattering phenomenon that affects the shorter wavelengths more than the longer ones. Attached is graph of atmospheric radiance looking down from orbit. GRND_RFLT is the what the ground reflects, DRCT_RFLT is the directly sun-illuminated reflection from the ground. The difference is the reflection of the scattered light in the atmosphere. TOTAL_RAD is the total radiance of the path, which includes ground reflected light as well as the scattered light in the path.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[racookpe1978]

Well, pure water is colorless, so it'd be hard to make a case that its individual gas molecules "should be" visible.

 

[IRstuff]

Actually, pure water isn't colorless, it's a bit on the blue-green side, as evidenced by is absorption spectrum. This is one reason that laser mine detection systems use blue-green lasers

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[baasi]

Sorry to say i do not get any pet answer

 

[racookpe1978]

Yeah. Always cats and dogs and rabid hedgehogs trying to mate with skunks, when you want cute Guinea pigs and cuddly rabbits. 8<)

 

[chicopee]

Each Water droplet will reflect light which make you see steam from a steam kettle. In the superheated region we no longer have droplets as we have vapor whose water molecules, I suspect, are smaller than the visible light wavelength in any spectrum, therefore, there is no reflection and no visibility of superheated steam. That's what I think, am I off base on this?

 

[Hoxton]

Steam is the gaseous phase of water, and is essentially colorless.

The white cloud emitted from a steam engine

http://www.nymr.co.uk

is droplets of water, same as in clouds (sometimes ice crystals for very high clouds).

Even lots of steam engine fans do not know this!

I tell people that our engines emit zillions of rainbows. There's romance for you.

I do not know if saturated steam is colored, never looked closely...

 

[georgeverghese]

Interesting. If liquid water is colorless, and pure water vapor is colorless, why is condensing steam white? From IRStuff's post, it seems liquid water color should be the net result when you remove blue - green from plain colorless light, which is ...?

 

[EdStainless]

Saturated steam isn't white, it is reflection that result is seeing it as white, it still has almost no color of it's own.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube

 

[DSB123]

baasi,
You do not see steam - you see condensate!!!