Most desired Sci-Fi Invention

[Sa'ar Chasm]

Bubbly ice cubes are colored white.

No they're not, and neither are polar bears.

Are you guys proposing that clear=any portion of a beam of light that hits one side can be seen on the other?

We're not proposing anything. We're stating accepted scientific definitions. Clear and colourless describe different properties. Colour is colour, but clear refers to turbidity (more specifically, the absence thereof).

[Nate the Great]

Try again, without defining anything as itself. X=X isn't very illuminating.

[Chancellor Valium]

'Anything that happens, happens'.

Written by an atheist looking for rational explanations to the universe.

Consider in terms of rationality.

[Nate the Great]

"No matter where you go, there you are."

Written for Buckaroo Bonzai, looking for a phrase that the builders of the Excelsior can rip off.

Consider in terms of blatant cliche emulation.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

All right...this is much easier with props.

Consider a glass of water. Nothing in it, no ice cubes or rye or sand or anything. It has no hue. It's colourless. You can see right through it - everything on the otherside of the glass is visible, albeit distorted. It's clear.

Now consider a glass of chocolate milk. It's got a colour: brown. You can't see what's behind the glass. It's not clear, it's opaque.

There'll be a quiz on this later. Just be glad we no longer use the term "water-white".

[Gatac]

Your explanation is clear, but lacks local color.

Gatac

[Nate the Great]

If you can add sand to drinking water, then I'm not going to the right parties.

I think we've got the "seethroughability" range pinned down to transparent and opaque, but I'm not sure that transparent=clear.

What color is "water-white" supposed to be? I've seen "clear" water, white cloudy water, red water, and so on.

As long as we're off-topic, how many people prefer a certain amount of "hardness" in their drinking water? I was raised in a house that used well water. We needed a water softener for the washing machine and so on, but the stuff coming out of the taps was all natural. The Mississippi River was literally across the street. I was raised on "rust water" and like it, within reason. To this day I find that nothing can quench my thirst like ice-cold, rock-hard water.