All books

Professional

Apps About Coach Log in Start reading

Chemistry · Glossary

What is Tyndall effect?

Definition 17.17 University Chemistry — Year 3 · Chapter 17 — Interfaces, Surfactants and Colloids

The Tyndall effect is the scattering of light by the particles of a colloid, which makes a beam visible from the side when it crosses the colloid, while a true solution remains invisible.

Sunbeams through a gap in the clouds: they are visible because the aerosol of the air, droplets and dust, scatters part of the light sideways, the Tyndall effect on the scale of the sky.
Sunbeams through a gap in the clouds: they are visible because the aerosol of the air, droplets and dust, scatters part of the light sideways, the Tyndall effect on the scale of the sky.
Read in context →