• Question: i don't know if you will be able to answer this but is grass transparent?

    Asked by biskinkiki1234 to Angus, Christian, Hannah, Laura, Simon on 17 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Angus Ferraro

      Angus Ferraro answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Well, if you hold a piece of grass up to the Sun you will see some light shining through. But for something to be transparent, it needs to allow light through and allow you to actually see a proper image. If you imagine looking at a massive blade of grass, you probably wouldn’t be able to see much on the other side. But you might be able to see the Sun shining through it. If something lets light through but doesn’t allows to actually see through it, it’s called ‘transleucent’.

      Another example of something that’s transleucent is the frosted glass on your bathroom window. It lets the light through but stops people peeking in at you!

    • Photo: Christian Maerz

      Christian Maerz answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Strictly speaking no – the reason you can see through it if you hold it up against the sun is that grass, like most living being and especially plants, consist to a very large proportion of water. This water is contained within extremely thin cell walls. This is basically why grass seems transparent: It is full of water, and its cell walls are very thin.

    • Photo: Hannah Bentham

      Hannah Bentham answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Great question.

      No, grass is not transparent. Though light passes through it, you cannot see images.

      Grass is translucent, as light does pass through it, but the light is scattered at the surface and inside the leaf so no images can be seen.

      Only certain frequencies of light can pass through grass, that’s why you have to hold it up to the sun, which emits visible light of a broad range of frequencies.

    • Photo: Simon Holyoake

      Simon Holyoake answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      I think everyone else has answered this very well, so have nothing I can add!

    • Photo: Laura Roberts Artal

      Laura Roberts Artal answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      I agree with all the other scientist! A really good question!

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