Source: Textbook

What makes glass or water transparent (what is the scientific explanation for this)? Do you think it would be scientifically possible for a man to become invisible, or transparent?

Model Answer

Glass and water are transparent because their atomic structures do not significantly absorb or scatter visible light. Electrons in these materials possess large energy band gaps; visible light photons lack sufficient energy to excite them. Thus, light interacts minimally, passing through unimpeded or briefly re-emitted, allowing clear vision. Human invisibility or transparency is not scientifically possible with current knowledge. Human tissues, being complex organic matter, inherently absorb and scatter visible light. To become transparent, tissues would need to be entirely non-absorbent and non-scattering, which is biologically improbable. 'Cloaking,' bending light around an object via metamaterials, is theoretical. Applying this to a large, dynamic biological entity across the broad visible spectrum presents an immense, currently insurmountable, scientific and engineering challenge.